Vitalik Buterin Proposes Major Overhaul of Ethereum Execution Layer

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined a sweeping two-part plan to redesign the blockchain’s execution layer, arguing that deep architectural changes are necessary to meet long-term scalability and proving goals.

In a detailed post, Buterin said Ethereum’s state tree and virtual machine together account for more than 80% of the network’s proving bottleneck. Incremental upgrades, he argued, will not be sufficient to address core inefficiencies as zero-knowledge (ZK) technologies and client-side proving become more central to Ethereum’s roadmap.

Binary State Tree Proposal Gains Momentum

The first proposal centers on EIP-7864, which would replace Ethereum’s current hexary Keccak-based Merkle Patricia Tree with a binary state tree using a more efficient hash function. The redesign is expected to shorten Merkle branches by roughly four times, reducing bandwidth requirements for light clients.

Switching to alternative hash functions such as Blake3 or Poseidon could significantly improve proving efficiency, though Poseidon would require additional security review. The binary tree concept has gained traction following renewed concerns about quantum vulnerabilities tied to elliptic curve cryptography used in earlier Verkle Tree proposals.

RISC-V as a Long-Term Replacement for the EVM

The second proposal involves eventually replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine with RISC-V, an open-source instruction set already widely used in ZK proving systems. Buterin described a phased transition: first deploying RISC-V for precompiles, then enabling smart contracts directly in RISC-V, and ultimately converting the existing EVM into a contract running within the new architecture.

The proposal has sparked debate. Researchers at Offchain Labs, developers behind Arbitrum, have argued that WebAssembly may be a more flexible long-term alternative.

Upcoming Ethereum upgrades, including Glamsterdam and Hegota, are expected to focus heavily on execution layer improvements, though final feature sets remain under discussion.

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