Vitalik Proposes Replacing Ethereum Virtual Machine Language with RISC-V

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed replacing the current Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) contract language with the RISC-V instruction set architecture to enhance the speed and efficiency of the Ethereum network's execution layer. In his proposal on April 20th, Buterin outlined several long-term bottlenecks for Ethereum network expansion, including stable data availability sampling, ensuring block production remains competitive, and zero-knowledge EVM proofs. Buterin believes that implementing the RISC-V architecture in smart contracts can maintain competitiveness in the block production market and improve the efficiency of zero-knowledge functions in the execution layer. He wrote, "The work on sharded chains has enormous potential to greatly simplify Ethereum's consensus layer, but to achieve similar gains in the execution layer, this radical change may be the only viable path."