Dismantling Vitalik's strategic ambition to restructure the Ethereum execution layer with RISC-V

A friend asked me what I think of @VitalikButerin's radical proposal to replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine EVM bytecode with the open source RISC-V instruction set architecture? In essence, Ethereum is brewing a deep-level technological change led by ZK technology. Let me sort out the strategic logic behind it:

1) First of all, Vitalik’s idea of replacing EVM with RISC-V is not new. As early as when he proposed the Rollup-Centric expansion strategy, he had hinted at a similar idea: allowing all qualified layer2s to become the execution layer of the mainnet, and EVM downgraded from the protocol layer to the "in-line" Rollup execution client function layer, becoming one of many AltVMs.

The key to this transformation is that RISC-V, as a lower-level and more general instruction set architecture, can provide a unified "hardware" foundation for zkVM, so that various execution environments can run efficiently under the same framework. This architectural change must be based on Ethereum's completion of the underlying SNARKs deployment, because only when ZK technology can be applied to state verification on a large scale can this modular execution layer architecture achieve efficiency improvements while ensuring security.

2) To be honest, Ethereum’s strategic adjustment may seem like a desperate move, but a deeper analysis shows that the substitutability of the execution layer is actually a must for old-fashioned strong consensus public chains such as Ethereum. Faced with the technical impact of new public chains such as Solana and Sui with their extreme TPS, as well as the market diversion of a large number of EVM-compatible chains, Ethereum chose to take the initiative rather than passively take the hit.

Because, in terms of pure technical indicators, Ethereum's TPS is indeed difficult to compete with new public chains such as Solana and Sui, but in the trilemma, Ethereum has always adhered to its two core values of security and decentralization, while maintaining an unparalleled ecological prosperity and developer community.

If Ethereum tries to use the open source instruction set architecture RISC-V to improve the efficiency of the execution layer, especially in ZK proofs, it is expected to bring a 50-100 times performance leap. This strategy of iterating the execution layer without sacrificing the foundation not only retains Ethereum's core advantages, but also directly addresses its main shortcomings. Why not do it?

3) However, while we are excited about the new proposal, we must understand that the transformation from EVM to RISC-V is by no means a one-time project. From the perspective of technical implementation, this transformation may need to wait until ZK-SNARKs technology is deployed on a large scale before it can be fully promoted.

Compared with the major upgrades at the core level of Ethereum in the past few years (such as the consensus layer upgrade from PoW to PoS), ideally, the entire process requires rigorous design, extensive testing and strong community support, and it is estimated that it will take at least 2-3 years.

However, Vitalik emphasized backward compatibility in his proposal. Perhaps the existing EVM contracts will continue to exist through the RISC-V interpreter or parallel support mechanism, which is crucial to reducing the transition costs for developers and users. This incremental change strategy is also the robust strategic iteration style that Ethereum must have as a secure decentralized old blockchain.

In my opinion, Vitalik's proposal to replace EVM with RISC-V is not just a simple technical architecture adjustment, but an innovative strategy for Ethereum to proactively respond to competition from high-performance public chains. This proposal is closely related to the upgrades of Verge and Purge in the Ethereum roadmap. In essence, they are all centered around the SNARKs of the underlying layer, with the goal of establishing a more efficient and flexible execution environment to support diversified application scenarios in the future.

Previously, @drakefjustin revealed that the Ethereum Foundation will invest tens of millions of dollars in the zkVMs project. There is no doubt that zkVM is indeed one of the core narratives of Ethereum's future. Ethereum is trying to build not only a more efficient execution layer, but a modular architecture that is compatible with multiple virtual machines. This discussion about RISC-V replacing EVM may just be the beginning.