- Vitalik Buterin suggests replacing Ethereum’s EVM with the RISC-V architecture
- The change would enhance efficiency and simplify Ethereum’s execution layer
- Developers could continue using Solidity and Vyper with minimal disruption
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a major shift for the blockchain’s execution layer: gradually replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V architecture.
Starting with dual VM support, the goal is improved scalability, prover efficiency, and overall execution simplicity for Ethereum.
Outlined on the Ethereum Magicians forum, Buterin called this a long-term scaling solution: swapping the EVM (smart contract runtime) for RISC-V (a hardware instruction set).
Related: Vitalik Buterin’s Six-Month Roadmap for Ethereum: Faster, Fairer, and With AI
While the shift is technically complex, the design preserves key Ethereum features. Developers would still interact with familiar tools and abstractions like accounts, storage, and contract calls. Existing contracts written in Solidity or Vyper would remain compatible, with these languages integrating RISC-V as a backend.
Why Switch from EVM to RISC-V?
The motivation centers around performance, especially for zkEVM systems verifying transactions with zero-knowledge proofs. Buterin noted these systems spend a large share of their resources on executing EVM instructions. Replacing the EVM with RISC-V could significantly reduce these proving costs.
Benchmarks show that systems compiling the EVM into RISC-V already exist. Giving developers direct access to the RISC-V environment could lead to over 50x gains in efficiency. In limited cases, it could exceed 100x.
This would also align Ethereum’s gas costs more closely with actual computational expenses. Buterin noted that proving times would become the economic driver, creating pressure to reduce inefficient pre-complies.
Implementation Options
Buterin proposed several implementation paths. The least disruptive would be to support both EVM and RISC-V contracts, enabling two-way interoperability.
An intermediate solution would introduce a formal concept of “virtual machine interpreters,” starting with an EVM version implemented in RISC-V, allowing other virtual machines, like Move, to be supported in the future.
A more transformative approach would wrap existing EVM contracts in RISC-V interpreter contracts, preserving behavior while streamlining the protocol.
Connecting to Ethereum’s Broader Goals
Buterin linked this execution layer proposal to Ethereum’s broader goal of reducing complexity. Buterin referenced the beam chain effort to simplify the consensus layer. He also suggested that a move to RISC-V might be the only practical way to achieve similar gains in the execution layer.
Related: Deep Dive: Vitalik Buterin’s 2-of-3 Proof System for Ethereum Layer 2s
The proposal is still in its early stages and open to community discussion. While implementation would take time, the idea could influence Ethereum’s roadmap as it evolves to meet future scaling demands.
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