Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, has made a strong call for simplifying the foundational protocol of the second-largest blockchain to enhance the network's efficiency, safety, and accessibility. This proposal, presented in a blog post on May 3, titled 'Simplifying L1', not only reflects a desire to improve Ethereum but also aims to restructure the Ethereum system to become simpler and more powerful, with a clear influence from Bitcoin's minimalist design.
The vision for the future of Ethereum
In the post, Buterin shared a long-term vision for the development of Ethereum over the next five years. He hopes that Ethereum can achieve a simplicity close to Bitcoin, believing that simplicity is the key factor that helps this network maintain stability and sustainable scalability.
Although important upgrades such as the transition to a PoS mechanism and the integration of zk-SNARKs have empowered Ethereum, Buterin acknowledged that they also come with increased technical complexity. This leads to higher development costs, longer development cycles, and an increased risk of serious errors in the system.
Buterin also noted that part of this complexity may stem from decisions he made in the past:
"Previously, Ethereum was not simplified as it is now (sometimes due to my own decisions), and this led to many redundant development costs, security risks, and limitations in research and development culture, often in pursuit of benefits that later proved to be unrealistic."
Proposal to simplify the consensus layer
One of the key focuses in Buterin's Ethereum simplification strategy is the consensus layer — the foundation that determines the stability and security of the network. He proposed adopting a '3-slot finality' model to eliminate complex components such as epochs, sync committees, and validator shuffling.
According to Buterin, this model not only streamlines the consensus architecture but also significantly reduces the number of concurrently active validators, thereby enhancing security and improving the system's long-term stability.
Additionally, he also proposed simplifying the rules for selecting forks — which are considered complex and prone to confusion — and promoting the application of aggregation protocols based on STARK (Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge). These technologies promise to bring higher decentralization while simplifying network coordination mechanisms, helping Ethereum move closer to the goal of operating efficiently with a lightweight structure like Bitcoin, while still retaining its inherent flexibility.
Transitioning from EVM to RISC-V
To improve performance and reduce complexity, Buterin proposed transitioning from the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to a simpler virtual machine friendly to Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) like RISC-V. RISC-V is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) notable for its minimalist design philosophy, using a small set of simple instructions to achieve high efficiency and ease of implementation.
According to Buterin, this transition could bring a 100-fold performance improvement for ZKP while significantly simplifying the Ethereum protocol. However, to maintain backward compatibility, he proposed running old EVM contracts on-chain through a RISC-V interpreter during the transition phase, allowing both VMs to operate in parallel.
In addition to improvements in technical structure, Buterin also emphasized the importance of standardizing the entire Ethereum protocol. He proposed adopting erasure coding methods*, using serialization formats (favoring SSZ) and tree structures to reduce redundant complexity. The goal is to optimize Ethereum's tools and infrastructure while minimizing risks and costs.
Buterin also called for Ethereum to pursue the 'max line-of-code' goal, which means keeping the essential logic of consensus as lean and auditable as possible. Legacy features that are no longer critical will be retained but will not belong to the core specifications of the system.
Fierce competitive context
Buterin's proposals are made in the context of Ethereum facing increasingly fierce competition from other blockchains. Alex Svanevik, CEO of Nansen, pointed out that Ethereum's dominance in the L1 blockchain market is gradually declining.
"If you had asked me 3-4 years ago whether Ethereum would dominate cryptocurrency, I would have said yes," Svanevik shared. "But now, it is clear that this is no longer true."
In this context, Buterin's efforts to simplify Ethereum not only aim to improve the network's operational capabilities but also help Ethereum maintain and strengthen its position in fierce competition with rivals.
Vitalik Buterin's vision for a simpler, more efficient, and safer Ethereum is an ambitious yet very reasonable strategy. While previous upgrades have helped Ethereum rise strongly, increasing complexity may pose risks in the future. If Buterin's proposals are successfully implemented, Ethereum could not only maintain stability but also enhance scalability and long-term resilience. This could also help Ethereum sustain and strengthen its position in a competitive blockchain world.
*Erasure coding is a technique in the field of storage and data transmission aimed at protecting data from loss. It works by dividing data into multiple small parts and creating additional parts (redundancy blocks) so that if some parts are lost, the original data can still be recovered.
*Max line-of-code is an informal but easily understandable term, often used to refer to the goal or limit of the maximum number of source code lines that are allowed or desired in a software system, program, or specific component.
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