On April 21, Vitalik Buterin proposed a major proposal at the Ethereum Magicians forum: to replace the existing Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with the open-source architecture RISC-V, aiming to solve the performance bottlenecks of scalability and zero-knowledge computing.
That's right, you read that correctly—this is a conceptual upgrade that completely abandons the EVM architecture, and once implemented, it will be the most radical and revolutionary change in the Ethereum execution layer.
Why does Vitalik want to 'tear down' the EVM?
Since its launch in 2015, the EVM has been the engine for running smart contracts, supporting the entire Ethereum ecosystem. However, it has an old problem: designed for generality, not born for efficiency.
With the rise of ZK technology (especially ZK-Rollup and ZK-EVM), the computational cost of verifying contract logic has become increasingly high. Vitalik believes that the design of the EVM has slowed down the progress of Ethereum, especially in zero-knowledge scenarios.
So, he set his sights on RISC-V—a widely used open-source reduced instruction set architecture in hardware and low-level systems. Its core advantages are:
✅ Lightweight
✅ Easier for ZK verification
✅ Facilitates multi-platform compatibility
✅ Extremely high execution efficiency (theoretically hundreds of times that of the EVM)
In short: faster, simpler, and more adaptable to future Layer 2 and ZK ecosystems.
The three alternative solutions proposed
Vitalik did not rashly propose a 'one-size-fits-all' solution, but instead suggested three possible alternative paths:
EVM and RISC-V contracts run natively in parallel
→ Similar to a dual-engine architecture, gradually switching.
Let EVM contracts run through the RISC-V interpreter
→ Without changing the contract logic, only changing the underlying execution method.
Directly write the RISC-V interpreter into the Ethereum protocol
→ This is a route of complete reconstruction, meaning a complete change of the underlying virtual machine.
Among them, Solution Three is the most disruptive and also the riskiest, but from the perspective of performance and future evolution, it is the real target direction.
Decentralized viewpoint interpretation: Ethereum is evolving towards a 'modular execution layer'
The logic behind this proposal is actually very clear: Ethereum is no longer stubbornly adhering to 'one universal architecture', but is preparing to thoroughly modularize the execution layer, allowing different application scenarios to choose the optimal virtual machine.
For the EVM, its era has not ended, but in the future it may be just one option among many 'execution engines'—rather than the only solution.
This trend resonates with directions like ZK-EVM, OP Stack, MoveVM, etc.: no longer binding the entire ecosystem with a 'unified standard', but allowing users, developers, and protocols greater flexibility.
In other words: Ethereum not only wants to be the world computer but also to become the 'plugin market' for the world's computing platform.
Latest situation: starting to rebound, but still not out of danger zone
Back to the characteristics of ETH—
The opening price in 2025 is $3,337
February plummeted -32.2%, March continued to drop -18.4%
On April 9, it hit the lowest point of the year at $1,474
But it has already gently rebounded, currently running in the range of $1,470~$1,690, with a 0.8% increase over the past week and a 3% increase in 24 hours. Although the increase is not large, it can be seen as a preliminary signal of a phase rebound.
ETH soared 66.75% last year in November to December, peaking at $4,106
