The co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), Vitalik Buterin, proposed to revise the intelligent blockchain contract infrastructure by replacing the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) by RISC-V, an architecture of open-source instructions widely adopted.
This change aims to approach one of the keys to the scale of Ethereum by considerably improving the efficiency and simplicity of the execution of intelligent contracts.
Buterin offers EVM abandonment for risc-v
The proposal was detailed in an article on the Ethereum Magicians forum. In this document, Buterin suggested that intelligent contracts could possibly be compiled at RISC-V rather than in EVM bytecode.
According to Buterin, this change takes up long -term scalability challenges. This particularly includes the production of block production and improving efficiency resistant to zero knowledge (ZK).
“It aims to considerably improve the effectiveness of the Ethereum execution layer, to resolve one of the bottlenecks of the main scaling, and can also considerably improve the simplicity of the execution layer – in fact, it is perhaps the only way to do so.”
The current ZK-EVM implementations spend about half of their Prouvance cycles on the execution of the EVM. By switching to a native RISC-V virtual machine, Ethereum could potentially reach up to 100x efficiency gains.
Above all, many fundamental aspects of Ethereum architecture would remain unchanged, preserving continuity for developers and users. Basic abstractions such as accounts, storage of intelligent contracts, ETH sales and intermediate contract calls would work exactly as they do today.
The developers would always write contracts in familiar languages like Solidey or Vyper. These would simply be compiled at RISC-V rather than in EVM bytecode. The tools and workflows would remain largely intact, ensuring a smooth transition.
Above all, the proposal guarantees compatibility behind. Existing EVM contracts will remain fully operational and interoperable with new RISC-V contracts.
Buterin describes several potential implementation paths. The first would support intelligent contracts EVM and Risc-V natively. The second suggests packing EVM contracts to perform via an interpreter written in Risc-V. Thus, this would allow a complete transition without breaking compatibility.
The third more modular approach is based on the second by officially devoting interpreters as part of the Ethereum protocol. This would allow EVM and future virtual machines to be taken care of in a standardized manner.
Buterin said that the idea is “just as ambitious as the effort of the beam chain”.
“The beam chain effort is very promising to considerably simplify the Ethereum consensus layer. But so that the execution layer can see similar gains, this type of radical change can be the only viable path,” added Buterine.
For the context, the Ethereum beam chain is a overhaul of the Ethereum consensus layer (chain of tags). It focuses on faster blocking times, faster purpose, chain serpent and quantum resistance. Development will probably start in 2026.
This proposal is part of the broader vision of Ethereum of modularity, simplicity and long -term scalability. Previously, Beincryptto reported on the plans centered on the confidentiality of Buterin for the blockchain.
The proposal focused on the integration of technologies preserving confidentiality. In addition, Pectra upgrade also approaches, the launch scheduled for May 7.
Meanwhile, ETH continues to cope with market -contrary winds, trading in March 2023. This year was quite difficult for Altcoin, as it saw a drop of 50.8%. In fact, Ethereum Dominance reached a hollow of 5 years last week.
Nevertheless, Beincrypto data have shown a slight recovery in the last 14 days. ETH increased by 6.1%. During the last day, he experienced modest gains of 1.7%. At the time of writing the editorial staff, ETH was negotiated at $ 1,639.
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