Recently, a friend asked me how I view Vitalik Buterin's latest proposal for 'simplifying L1'. To be honest, this is no longer just a technical issue but a microcosm of the faith battle in the Crypto industry. If I had to make a 'judgment', any perspective would be valid because the current Crypto narrative has long entered a phase of 'faith internal conflict' among holders.
To discuss this topic interestingly, let's take a look at two completely different perspectives at once:
Critics' perspective: The end of the world computer, Ethereum's strategic contraction.
In this interpretation of the version, Vitalik's new proposal, on the surface, is to 'make Ethereum simpler and more efficient', but in essence, it seems to announce the collapse of Ethereum's dream of being a universal world computer. From the Rollup-Centric grand layout of the past to now actively throwing out a 'slimming' plan, this resembles a passive strategic self-rescue.
Replacing EVM with RISC-V looks like a systematic technological reconstruction, but the underlying implication is that Ethereum's vision of maintaining a super-large Layer 2 ecosystem has encountered insurmountable technical bottlenecks. Especially with competitors like Solana emerging with a simple architecture and MEME strategies sweeping the market, Ethereum's complex narrative seems increasingly heavy and powerless. Vitalik's proposal to 'return to simplicity like Bitcoin' is fundamentally a strategic retreat.
After ten years of technological evolution, the final answer is 'learn from Bitcoin to simplify', which has made many old players lament that this conclusion was already written into the code by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. The dream of 'blockchainizing the internet' and building a global decentralized supercomputer now, under the double pressure of complexity and performance bottlenecks, can only choose to 'cut off an arm to survive'.
From a macro perspective, when Ethereum has to strategically align itself with Bitcoin to maintain its presence, does this already signify a retreat in the 'L1 competition'? Once the market realizes that Ethereum is no longer focused on general computing but is instead wavering on the simplification route, this may not be good news for future ecological confidence.
Supporters' perspective: The starting point of a modular new era, a paradigm shift prioritizing security.
But from a different angle, this may not be 'backing down', but rather Ethereum has completed a strategic self-transcendence. Vitalik's new proposal precisely indicates that Ethereum is transitioning from 'universal narrative' to 'deep optimization', actively shifting from 'doing everything' to 'doing key things'—this is not only a clarity but also a self-revolution of the ecosystem.
Replacing EVM with RISC-V means that Ethereum embraces a more open and standardized modular route at the underlying architecture level. This will not only greatly promote the development of ZK technology but also allow Ethereum to support higher-performing application layers with lower complexity, potentially bringing nearly 100 times the performance improvement. This is a significant boon for the entire Layer 2 ecosystem and will provide a more robust underlying 'security consensus layer' for Rollups.
Importantly, the signal released by this proposal is clear: Ethereum's goal is not to compete with Solana and Aptos on the TPS metric, but to build a combination ecosystem of 'secure settlement layer + open innovation layer' with 'security' as the first principle. As Vitalik emphasized, learning from Bitcoin is a tribute to the path of security, not a surrender of complexity. After all, Bitcoin's path has long validated this point: robustness, simplicity, and verifiability are the greatest moat in the competition of public chains.
From a longer-term perspective, while high-performance public chains like Solana are still chasing single performance metrics, Ethereum is already building new game rules for the next decade—not about who runs faster, but about who can 'win steadily', providing the most solid soil for innovation. After experiencing multiple bull and bear cycles, people are increasingly realizing that the winner is never the one with the fastest TPS but the one who can withstand the test of time.
The struggle of faith, different perspectives yield different results.
Today, the biggest problem in Ethereum's ecosystem is not technology but 'consensus split'. On one side are old-school holders who are deeply entrenched in technical narratives, while on the other side are critics attracted by emerging public chains. This split is both a symbol of industry maturity and the main battleground for future competition.
But in the end, this is just a 'perspective issue'—what you see depends on how you look at it. Whether Vitalik's proposal is a strategic retreat or a modular rebirth actually depends on whether you 'believe' or 'do not believe'. Believers have their reasons for faith, while non-believers have their critical perspectives.
As an investor, the key is to grasp the 'hard information' that is not influenced by emotions. At this time, AI investment research assistants like Mlion.ai, which can track market dynamics in real-time, deconstruct complex technical narratives, and transform them into actionable information, become particularly important. Whether tracking Vitalik's latest proposal or analyzing the market dynamics of competitors like Solana, Mlion.ai can help you clarify the main line and see the underlying logic. Especially in the stage where the market is pulled back and forth by 'faith' and 'fear', having a calm and objective data analysis tool is the greatest trump card against emotional fluctuations.
Disclaimer: The above content is for information sharing only and does not constitute any investment advice! Investment carries risks; enter the market with caution.
