Ethereum Going Back to Basics: Buterin’s Bold Plan to Match Bitcoin Simplicity #CriptoNews

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• Vitalik Buterin proposes replacing Ethereum’s Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V to boost performance up to 100x
• The change aims to simplify Ethereum’s structure to “become close to as simple as Bitcoin” within five years
• RISC-V would make Ethereum run faster by eliminating translation steps while maintaining backward compatibility
• The plan focuses on simplifying three areas: Consensus Layer, Execution Layer, and sharing components across protocol layers
• Despite potential benefits, the transition faces challenges including breaking backward compatibility and requiring developer retraining

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has unveiled a plan to replace Ethereum’s Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V, an open-source instruction set architecture. This change could potentially boost the network’s performance up to 100 times while making it structurally simpler.

In a May 3 blog post, Buterin outlined his vision for Ethereum to “become close to as simple as Bitcoin” within five years. He praised Bitcoin’s protocol simplicity as one of its best features.

“One of the best things about Bitcoin is how beautifully simple the protocol is,” Buterin wrote, explaining how Bitcoin transactions and proofs work. He argued that this simplicity is key to making a protocol “a credibly neutral and globally trusted base layer.”

The Technical Shift

The proposed transition to RISC-V would fundamentally change how Ethereum operates. RISC-V is an open-source instruction set that defines how software communicates with processors.

For Ethereum, this change would make the network run faster by removing extra translation steps. Applications could work directly on the execution layer, potentially speeding up some operations by 100 times while preserving compatibility with existing smart contracts.

The current Ethereum Virtual Machine is custom-built and requires translation to other formats first, which slows down processes. RISC-V, on the other hand, can handle operations directly and is “simpler to reason about,” potentially increasing participation in protocol research.

If implemented, RISC-V 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” with fewer components, according to Buterin.

Simplification Strategy

Buterin identified three major areas for simplification: Consensus Layer, Execution Layer, and sharing components across protocol layers.

For the Consensus Layer, he proposed implementing a ‘three-slot finality’ design to remove complex concepts like slots and epochs. He also suggested reducing active validators to enable simpler fork choice rules.

Regarding the Execution Layer, Buterin noted that “The EVM is increasingly growing in complexity, and much of that complexity has proven unnecessary.” His solution is to replace it with RISC-V or another simpler virtual machine.

The third aspect focuses on standardization across different parts of the stack. “There should ideally only be one way we do [something]across the consensus, execution, and other layers,” Buterin explained.

Despite these ambitious plans, Buterin admitted his past failures at improving Ethereum. The network has often struggled with complexity “sometimes because of my own decisions,” he wrote, leading to actions “in pursuit of benefits that have proven illusory.”

Industry experts have mixed reactions to the proposal. Dominick John, an analyst at Kronos Research, told Decrypt that the plan could “break backward compatibility, demand massive developer retraining, and rely on immature tooling.”

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

Others see long-term value in Ethereum’s development. Thad Pinakiewicz, researcher at Galaxy, wrote, “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.”

Ethereum has faced market challenges, with its share dropping to an all-time low of 7% in April. Spot prices have hovered around $1,800 this month, down 63% from its 2021 all-time high.

Despite market concerns, Buterin maintains that simplifying the protocol would benefit Ethereum in the long run. “Caring about simplicity is, like decentralization, a short-term cost for the sake of benefits that do not appear immediately.”

The proposed four-phase transition aims to maintain backward compatibility while delivering substantial performance improvements, potentially reshaping Ethereum’s future in blockchain technology.