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Vitalik Buterin proposed a new architecture and protocol-level standards to make Ethereum simpler, faster, and easier to maintain.
Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, called for simplifying the core Ethereum protocol with the aim of making the network more efficient, secure, and accessible, inspired by Bitcoin's simple design.
In a blog post titled "Simplifying L1," published on May 3, Buterin laid out a vision for restructuring Ethereum's architecture across consensus, execution, and shared components.
Buterin wrote: "This post will describe how Ethereum can become as simple as Bitcoin in five years from now," considering that simplicity is key to Ethereum's resilience and scalability in the long run.
While recent upgrades such as Proof of Stake (PoS) and the integration of Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (zk-SNARK) have made Ethereum more powerful, he mentioned that technical complexity has led to bloated development cycles, higher costs, and greater risks of mistakes.
"Historically, Ethereum has not done this often (sometimes due to my own decisions), and this has contributed to a lot of our excessive spending on development, all kinds of security risks, and the isolation of the research and development culture, often in pursuit of benefits that turned out to be illusory."
Buterin praises Bitcoin for its simplicity. Source: Vitalik Buterin
Related: "Vitalik: The Story of Ethereum" is more about humanity than cryptocurrencies.
Ethereum is looking towards 'triple fork finality' to simplify consensus.
One of the main focus areas is Ethereum's consensus layer. This effort is based on the proposed 'triple fork finality' model, which eliminates complex components such as eras, synchronization committees, and validator mixing.
Buterin wrote: "The low number of active validators at any one time means that it has become safer to use simpler implementations of the fork choice rule."
Other proposed improvements include allowing clearer fork choice rules and adopting scalable transparent knowledge argument-based aggregation protocols (STARK) to simplify network coordination and enhance decentralization.
At the implementation level, Buterin proposed transitioning from the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to a simpler, more ZK-compatible virtual machine like RISC-V. This move would improve zero-knowledge proofs performance by 100 times and significantly simplify the protocol.
RISC-V is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) used in designing computer processors. It follows a simple design philosophy, using a small set of simple instructions to achieve high efficiency and ease of implementation.
To maintain compatibility with previous versions, Buterin suggested running old EVM contracts on-chain via a RISC-V compiler, supporting both virtual machines simultaneously during the transition phase.
Source: Vitalik Buterin
Related: Ethereum community members propose a new fee structure for the application layer.
Buterin calls for protocol-level standards.
Buterin also called for the standardization of protocol specifications. He proposed adopting a single erasure coding method, a sequential format (preferably SSZ), and a tree structure to reduce excessive complexities and simplify Ethereum's infrastructure tools and architecture.
Buterin wrote: "Simplicity is akin to decentralization in many ways." He suggested that Ethereum adopt a goal for 'maximum code line' similar to what Teenygrad is doing, while keeping monetary consensus logic as simple and auditable as possible.
Legacy non-critical features will remain but will exist outside of the core specifications.
Buterin's proposal to simplify Ethereum comes at a time when the network continues to lose market share to competing blockchains.
During a group discussion at the LONGITUDE event organized by Cointelegraph on May 2, Alex Svanevik, CEO of data service Nansen, stated that Ethereum's relative dominance among L1 blockchain networks has declined.
Svanevik said during a panel discussion at the LONGITUDE event organized by Cointelegraph: "If you had asked me three or four years ago whether Ethereum would dominate the cryptocurrency market, I would have said yes. But now, it is clear that this is not what is happening."
