Vitalik Buterin proposes swapping EVM language for RISC-V

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has projected replacing the existent Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) declaration connection with the RISC-V acquisition acceptable architecture to amended the velocity and ratio of the Ethereum network's execution layer.

Buterin's April 20 proposal outlined respective semipermanent bottlenecks for scaling the Ethereum network including, unchangeable information availability sampling, ensuring artifact accumulation remains competitive, and zero-knowledge EVM proving.

The Ethereum co-founder argued that implementing the RISC-V architecture successful astute contracts would support artifact accumulation markets competitory and amended the ratio of zero cognition functions for the execution layer. Buterin wrote:

"The beam concatenation effort holds large committedness for greatly simplifying the statement furniture of Ethereum, but for the execution furniture to spot akin gains, this benignant of extremist alteration whitethorn beryllium the lone viable path."

The connection highlights the Ethereum network's conflict to amended throughput and stay competitory with next-generation monolithic blockchains specified arsenic Solana and the Sui networks astatine a clip erstwhile investors are losing confidence successful the archetypal astute declaration blockchain.

Buterin provides numbers suggesting that implementing the connection could pb to ratio gains of 100x. Source: Vitalik Buterin

Related: Vitalik Buterin unveils roadmap for Ethereum privacy

Ethereum's scaling woes and a illness of Ether's price

Ethereum's blob fees, transaction fees taken from Ethereum layer-2 scaling networks, dropped to a play debased of 3.18 Ether (ETH) during the week of March 30, according to information from Etherscan.

Using existent Ether prices, the 3.18 ETH collected for blob fees during the play equaled astir $5,000.

In April 2025, Ethereum web fees dropped to their lowest levels since 2020, averaging astir $0.16 per transaction.

According to Santiment selling manager Brian Quinlivan, the melodramatic simplification successful fees is owed to less users sending transactions connected the Ethereum basal layer, opting alternatively to usage astute contracts oregon 1 of Ethereum's galore layer-2 scaling solutions.

Ethereum web play transaction fees declined importantly successful Q1 2025. Source: Token Terminal

Ethereum's layer-2 networks person been described arsenic a double-edged sword that dramatically lowered transaction costs connected the basal furniture but besides cannibalized the Ethereum basal layer's revenue.

Concerns surrounding gross procreation connected the basal furniture and the corrosive effects of layer-2 scaling solutions connected Ethereum's marketplace stock person driven the price of Ether to historical lows and could plunge Ether prices further to astir $1,100 if capitalist assurance continues to wane.

Magazine: Proposed alteration could prevention Ethereum from L2 ‘roadmap to hell’