Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed overhauling the blockchain’s smart contract infrastructure by replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V, a widely adopted open-source instruction set architecture.

This shift aims to address one of Ethereum’s key scaling bottlenecks by dramatically improving the efficiency and simplicity of smart contract execution.

The proposal was detailed in a post on the Ethereum Magicians forum. In it, Buterin suggested that smart contracts could eventually be compiled to RISC-V rather than EVM bytecode. 

According to Buterin, this shift addresses long-term scalability challenges. This particularly includes keeping block production competitive and improving zero-knowledge (ZK) EVM-proof efficiency. 

“It aims to greatly improve the efficiency of the Ethereum execution layer, resolving one of the primary scaling bottlenecks, and can also greatly improve the execution layer’s simplicity – in fact, it is perhaps the only way to do so,” he wrote.

Current ZK-EVM implementations spend around half of their proving cycles on EVM execution. By switching to a native RISC-V VM, Ethereum could potentially achieve up to 100x efficiency gains.

Importantly, many fundamental aspects of Ethereum’s architecture would remain unchanged, preserving continuity for developers and users. Core abstractions such as accounts, smart contract storage, ETH balances, and cross-contract calls would function exactly as they do today. 

Developers would still write contracts in familiar languages like Solidity or Vyper. These would simply be compiled to RISC-V rather than EVM bytecode. Tooling and workflows would remain largely intact, ensuring a smooth transition. 

Crucially, the proposal ensures backward compatibility. Existing EVM contracts will remain fully operational and interoperable with new RISC-V contracts.

Buterin outlines several potential implementation paths forward. The first would support both EVM and RISC-V smart contracts natively. The second suggests wrapping EVM contracts to run via an interpreter written in RISC-V. Thus, it would enable a full transition without breaking compatibility.  

The third, more modular approach, builds on the second by formally enshrining interpreters as part of the Ethereum protocol. This would allow the EVM and the future virtual machines to be supported in a standardized way. 

Buterin stated that the idea is “equally as ambitious as the beam chain effort.” 

“The beam chain effort holds great promise for greatly simplifying the consensus layer of Ethereum. But for the execution layer to see similar gains, this kind of radical change may be the only viable path,” Buterin added.

For context, the Ethereum Beam Chain is a redesign of Ethereum’s consensus layer (Beacon Chain). It focuses on faster block times, faster finality, chain snarkification, and quantum resistance. The development will likely begin in 2026.

This proposal fits into Ethereum’s broader vision of modularity, simplicity, and long-term scalability. Previously, BeInCrypto reported on Buterin’s privacy-centric plans for the blockchain. 

The proposal focused on integrating privacy-preserving technologies. Moreover, the Pectra upgrade is also nearing, with the launch expected on May 7.

Meanwhile, ETH continues to face market headwinds, trading at March 2023 lows. This year has been quite hard for the altcoin, as it saw a decline of 50.8%. In fact, Ethereum dominance hit a 5-year low last week.

Nonetheless, BeInCrypto data showed a slight recovery over the last 14 days. ETH rose by 6.1%. Over the past day alone, it saw modest gains of 1.7%. At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $1,639.