On April 20, 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin put forward an ambitious proposal for a radical overhaul of the blockchain architecture. He suggested replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the standard platform for running smart contracts, with the RISC-V architecture — a modern instruction set that is actively used in processors.
This is reported by Business • Media
Goals and Potential Impact of the Initiative
According to Buterin, this idea aims to eliminate one of the main bottlenecks in the operation of the first-layer network, which significantly hampers the scalability of the system and increases the costs of transaction verification, especially in the context of zero-knowledge (ZK). Implementing the RISC-V architecture could accelerate the processing of zero-knowledge proofs and contribute to more efficient network scaling.
Community Response and Future Opportunities
The Incrypted team analyzed this proposal and its potential impact, as well as the reactions of Ethereum developers and users to the possible architectural change.
“The idea is ambitious and has the potential to set a precedent for a fundamental restructuring of Ethereum to enhance the efficiency of the execution environment.”