Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin has come up with the idea of replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with the open-source RISC-V architecture in a striking new proposal that aims to significantly increase the scalability and efficiency of Ethereum’s execution layer.
Buterin shared the concept in a blog post on the Ethereum Magicians forum, calling it a “radical” but potentially necessary step to simplify and strengthen the network. The proposal coincides with Ethereum’s ongoing evolution following years of scalability upgrades and modular architecture experiments.
“The Beam Chain work shows great promise for greatly simplifying Ethereum’s consensus layer,” Buterin wrote, “but such a radical change may be the only viable path for the execution layer to achieve similar gains.”
According to Buterin, moving to RISC-V, a free, open-source instruction set architecture, could reduce on-chain execution costs by up to 100x in some scenarios. RISC-V is often compared to proprietary architectures like ARM and x86, but stands out for its openness and flexibility, making it a potential game-changer for blockchain infrastructure.
Buterin emphasized backward compatibility, assuring the community that existing EVM contracts will remain fully functional and interoperable with the newly introduced RISC-V contracts. The proposal includes binary support options as well as an interpreter that can translate EVM contracts to RISC-V format.
This isn’t the first time RISC-V has been explored on the blockchain. In August 2023, Polkadot introduced PolkaVM, a virtual machine that supports multiple architectures, including RISC-V. Buterin cited this model as an example of a less disruptive path that avoids the need for a major hardfork.
*This is not investment advice.
Source: https://en.bitcoinsistemi.com/vitalik-buterin-proposes-an-update-that-will-profoundly-impact-ethereum-eth/