Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) contract language with the RISC-V instruction meant to improve the network’s execution and scalability.
Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum Execution Layer Proposal
In a proposal shared on April 20, Buterin described long-term challenges facing Ethereum’s Layer 1 scaling, including stable data availability, maintaining a competitive block production market, and enhancing zero-knowledge (ZK) EVM capabilities. He believes integrating RISC-V, which is a lightweight, open-source architecture, into Ethereum’s smart contracts could address these hurdles and keep the network competitive with faster blockchains like Solana and Sui.
“The beam chain effort holds great promise for simplifying Ethereum’s consensus layer,” Buterin wrote. “But for the execution layer, this kind of radical change may be the only viable path.”
Buterin suggested three potential ways for implementing RISC-V:
Dual VM Support: The least disruptive alternative, allowing contracts to be written in either EVM or RISC-V, with full interoperability between the two.
EVM Interpreter Contracts: A more aggressive way that wraps existing EVM contracts inside RISC-V contracts through an interpreter, outsourcing EVM execution to RISC-V logic.
Protocol-Level VM Interpreters: A hybrid model that formalizes the concept of VM interpreters in the protocol, starting with EVM and perhaps adding others like Move.
The latter two approaches, Buterin argues, would simplify Ethereum’s execution layer, which has become difficult to modify incrementally. For e.g., even removing legacy features like SELFDESTRUCT has proven complex. A modular design, like the one proposed, could enable Ethereum to maintain a minimal, auditable codebase, much like Tinygrad’s under-10,000-line principle.
This proposal comes at a time when Ethereum is facing pressure to scale efficiently and retain its leadership as the go-to smart contract platform amid increasing competition from Solana and other blockchains.
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