Vitalik Buterin lays out a two-part plan to overhaul Ethereum’s execution layer from the ground up
Vitalik Buterin proposed a two-part overhaul for Ethereum's execution layer: replacing the state tree with a binary structure and eventually swapping the EVM for RISC-V.Summary
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin detailed a two-part plan for deep architectural changes to the network's execution layer, arguing that incrementalism cannot solve core proving inefficiencies.
The first part involves overhauling the state tree via EIP-7864, replacing the current hexary Keccak Merkle Patricia Tree with a binary tree structure. This change, credited to developers like Guillaume Ballet, would shorten Merkle branches fourfold and, when combined with a more efficient hash function like Blake3 or Poseidon, could drastically improve proving efficiency.
The second, longer-term proposal is to replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V, the instruction set architecture commonly used by ZK provers. Buterin outlined a three-stage deployment, culminating in retiring the EVM entirely. This proposal faces competition, notably from Offchain Labs researchers who advocate for WebAssembly (WASM) as a better long-term format for Ethereum's smart contracts.
(Source：The Block)