Vitalik Buterin’s Plan to Simplify Ethereum and Match Bitcoin’s Protocol Simplicity

TLDR

• Vitalik Buterin proposes replacing Ethereum’s Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V to boost performance up to 100x
• The change aims to simplify Ethereum to “become close to as simple as Bitcoin” within five years
• The transition would make Ethereum faster by eliminating translation steps while maintaining backward compatibility
• Three major areas for simplification include Consensus Layer, Execution Layer, and sharing components across protocol layers
• Ethereum’s market share has declined to 7% in April, with prices hovering around $1,800, down 63% from its 2021 all-time high

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has unveiled an ambitious proposal to replace Ethereum’s Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V, a move he claims could boost the blockchain’s performance by up to 100 times while making it “close to as simple as Bitcoin” within five years.

In a May 3 blog post, Buterin outlined his vision for a simpler Ethereum protocol that would bring Bitcoin-like simplicity to the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

“One of the best things about Bitcoin is how beautifully simple the protocol is,” Buterin wrote, highlighting the benefits of a streamlined approach.

The proposed transition to RISC-V would implement an open-source instruction set that defines how software communicates with processors. For Ethereum, this change would make the network run faster by cutting out extra translation steps.

Applications could work directly on the execution layer, potentially making some operations up to 100 times faster while maintaining compatibility with existing smart contracts. Current EVM architecture requires translation to other formats first, creating performance bottlenecks.

Technical Benefits and Implementation

RISC-V’s architecture can handle operations directly and is “simpler to reason about,” according to Buterin. This simplicity could increase participation in protocol research and development.

The benefits of the proposed change extend beyond performance. Buterin claims the transition could decrease “the cost of creating new infrastructure,” reduce “long-term protocol maintenance costs,” lower the “risk of catastrophic bugs,” and minimize the “social attack surface” by having fewer moving parts.

Buterin identified three major areas for simplification: the Consensus Layer, Execution Layer, and sharing components across protocol layers. The proposed simplification of the Consensus Layer includes implementing a ‘three-slot finality’ design to remove complex concepts like slots and epochs.

It would also reduce active validators to enable simpler fork choice rules and use STARK-based aggregation to eliminate trust concerns. Regarding the Execution Layer, Buterin noted that “the EVM is increasingly growing in complexity, and much of that complexity has proven unnecessary.”

Market Context and Challenges

Despite Buterin’s optimism, the proposal faces challenges. Dominick John, an analyst at Kronos Research, told Decrypt that the changes could “break backward compatibility, demand massive developer retraining, and rely on immature tooling.”

John also pointed out that Ethereum’s governance structure “requires broad consensus across fragmented stakeholders, a massive coordination challenge.”

Ethereum has fallen out of favor among crypto investors in recent months, with its market share dropping to an all-time low of 7% in April. The price has been hovering around $1,800, representing a 63% decline from its 2021 all-time high.

By contrast, Bitcoin is only down 13% from its peak price earlier this year. In his blog post, Buterin acknowledged past failures at improving Ethereum, stating that the network has often not made the right choices “sometimes because of my own decisions.”

However, some analysts remain positive about Ethereum’s future. Thad Pinakiewicz, researcher at Galaxy, wrote in a recent newsletter:

“Price isn’t the scoreboard for technological maturity. Ethereum isn’t failing because the price is flat. It’s succeeding because it’s laying down infrastructure others are copying.”

The proposal comes as layer-2 solutions built on Ethereum continue to advance. Just days before Buterin’s announcement, Ethereum rollup Scroll claimed it had become the first Ethereum Layer 2 using zero-knowledge proofs to reach a development stage allowing users to post transactions without relying on a central operator.

Buterin concluded that while simplifying the protocol would be a short-term cost, it would be worthwhile for long-term success. “Caring about simplicity is, like decentralization, a short-term cost for the sake of benefits that do not appear immediately.”