What is RISC-V, and why does Vitalik Buterin want it for Ethereum smart contracts?

Quick Summary:

That would be a direct improvement to the scalability of Ethereum, potentially solving one of the biggest criticized points of the blockchain industry. Additionally, RISC-V’s simple, flexible instruction set is better suited for ZK-proof computations than the EVM, which incurs overhead from administrative tasks like gas accounting and state management. Rather than rebuilding the EVM for ZK-proofs, RISC-V offers a streamlined alternative, simplifying the development of ZK-optimized execution layers.

On April 20, 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin unveiled a “radical” new scaling proposal to replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with the RISC-V instruction set architecture, aiming to boost the speed and efficiency of the network’s execution layer.

The idea is that RISC-V is the best way to solve the blockchain’s scalability constraints. “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.

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Article Details

Author / Journalist: Cointelegraph by Marcel Deer

Category: Crypto

Markets: United States

Topics: Risc-v Proposal Execution Idea Ethereum Buterin Smart Efficiency Contracts

Source Website Secure: Yes (HTTPS)

News Sentiment: Neutral

Fact Checked: Legitimate

Article Type: News Report

Published On: 2025-05-12 @ 12:18:00 (17 hours ago)

News Timezone: GMT -5:00

News Source URL: cointelegraph.com

Language: English

Article Length: 1233 words

Reading Time: 7 minutes read

Sentences: 59 lines

Sentence Length: 21 words per sentence (average)

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Copyright Owner: © Coin Telegraph

News ID: 28607295

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