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Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin has stirred up the Ethereum developer community once again with a groundbreaking proposal: replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with the RISC-V instruction set architecture, a more modern and widely supported open-source standard.
The idea, shared in an April 20 post on the Ethereum Magicians forum, has triggered intense discussion within the crypto space. While the proposal remains theoretical, it signals a potentially transformative shift in Ethereum’s execution layer—one that could streamline performance, improve scalability, and simplify zero-knowledge proof construction. If implemented, this would mark the biggest change to Ethereum’s low-level infrastructure since its inception.
What Is the EVM, and Why Replace It?
The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the core computation engine that processes smart contracts and updates Ethereum’s state. Every time a contract is executed, the EVM interprets bytecode—a low-level programming language specific to Ethereum.
Despite its foundational role, the EVM has several limitations:
- It’s custom-built, which means fewer external tools and developer support.
- It’s non-standard, making it harder to optimize across various hardware architectures.
- It’s less efficient when it comes to zero-knowledge proof generation, as ZK-EVMs must simulate EVM logic indirectly.
Buterin argues that moving to a standard instruction set like RISC-V, which is widely adopted in the hardware industry, could offer several key advantages:
- Improved compatibility with compilers and developer tooling.
- Simplified proof generation, especially for ZK-rollups and scalability-focused solutions.
- Better performance optimization on real-world devices.
Why RISC-V? The Case for a Hardware-Standard Instruction Set
RISC-V (pronounced “risk-five”) is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) that has gained widespread adoption in academia, hardware engineering, and the open-source developer world. Unlike proprietary ISAs like x86 or ARM, RISC-V allows for flexible, modular implementation.
Vitalik’s core point is this: many ZK-EVMs already translate Ethereum bytecode into RISC-V internally before generating cryptographic proofs. So why not cut out the middle step and use RISC-V natively as Ethereum’s low-level code?
He proposes that smart contracts be compiled directly to RISC-V, turning operations like SLOAD and CALL into system calls. While Ethereum’s account model, storage structure, and transaction architecture would remain the same, the underlying execution engine would be dramatically streamlined.
This could, according to Buterin, boost performance by up to 100x in some ZK-related use cases—an essential step for keeping Ethereum competitive in a fast-evolving blockchain landscape.
Maintaining Backward Compatibility
Vitalik is not proposing an abrupt migration. His post outlines a dual-VM model: one execution environment for legacy EVM bytecode and another for contracts compiled to RISC-V. This would allow:
- Existing contracts to remain fully functional.
- New contracts to choose between EVM and RISC-V, depending on use case.
- Interoperability between the two systems via wrappers and adapters.
This means Solidity and Vyper, Ethereum’s most popular languages, wouldn’t be thrown out—they’d simply compile to RISC-V instead of EVM bytecode. Developers could continue to build in familiar environments while benefiting from the performance and scalability gains.
The Scalability Context: Ethereum vs. Solana and Sui
Vitalik’s proposal comes at a time when Ethereum’s base layer is facing pressure from high-performance blockchains like Solana, Sui, and Aptos. These chains use parallel execution models and hardware-friendly virtual machines to achieve faster throughput and lower latency.
Solana, for instance, uses a custom architecture that executes transactions in parallel, enabling thousands of TPS (transactions per second). Sui employs the Move language and uses a different resource model to avoid conflicts.
Ethereum, by contrast, still operates with single-threaded, sequential execution on the EVM. While rollups and Layer 2s have helped scale Ethereum’s throughput, they often simulate the EVM on top of other VMs—adding complexity and cost.
Switching to RISC-V would potentially make Ethereum more hardware-native, narrowing the performance gap and making the network more future-proof.
Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Ethereum’s Next Frontier
A major selling point of the RISC-V switch is the potential for ZK-proof efficiency. Today’s ZK-EVMs simulate the EVM to prove the validity of computations—an expensive and time-consuming task. RISC-V, being hardware-native and standardized, is easier to optimize for ZK-STARKs and ZK-SNARKs.
Buterin believes that replacing EVM bytecode with RISC-V as the native target could reduce proof generation time and size dramatically, making ZK-rollups more cost-efficient and potentially enabling native Layer 1 ZK validation in the future.
This aligns with Ethereum’s longer-term roadmap, where ZK-proofs are expected to become the default for verifying computation—ushering in massive scalability gains without compromising decentralization.
Ethereum’s Current State: A Need for Innovation
Ethereum’s Layer 1 metrics are showing signs of saturation:
- Average fees are at their lowest in years (around $0.16 per transaction).
- More users are migrating to Layer 2 networks like Arbitrum and Optimism.
- Base layer revenue is declining, raising concerns about long-term sustainability.
While this shift is part of Ethereum’s design—Layer 2s are meant to scale the network—some analysts argue that Ethereum’s core chain risks becoming irrelevant if it fails to evolve quickly enough.
The RISC-V proposal is a visionary response to that concern. It’s not just about improving efficiency—it’s about reimagining Ethereum’s foundation for the next decade of growth.
The Community Weighs In
The response to Buterin’s proposal has been mixed, but engaged.
- Core developers expressed cautious optimism, noting that such a change would take years to implement, but could be worth the effort.
- ZK researchers and rollup teams welcomed the idea, highlighting the benefits for proof generation.
- Conservative voices warned about fragmentation and complexity, urging careful planning to avoid breaking consensus or creating multi-tiered execution risks.
Ethereum Foundation co-executive director Tomasz K. Stańczak emphasized that this proposal, like many from Buterin, is exploratory. It’s meant to open discussion and guide long-term thinking, rather than dictate an immediate course of action.
Conclusion
Vitalik Buterin’s proposal to replace the EVM with RISC-V is a bold, forward-looking vision for Ethereum’s evolution. It addresses core performance limitations, aligns with zero-knowledge advancements, and positions Ethereum to better compete with modern high-throughput chains.
While the proposal is in its early stages, it could set the stage for the next generation of smart contract infrastructure—one that’s more efficient, modular, and ready for the computational demands of the future.
For now, the community will debate. But if Ethereum hopes to remain at the forefront of decentralized innovation, such bold ideas may soon become more than theoretical.
This article reflects the opinions of the publisher based on available information at the time of writing. It is not intended to provide financial advice, and it does not necessarily represent the views of the news site or its affiliates. Readers are encouraged to conduct further research or consult with a financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
