Ethereum (ETH) Network Activity Decreases, Driving New Proposal to Switch to RISC-V

Buterin notes that most zero-knowledge (ZK) provers already simulate the EVM by translating it into RISC-V.

Ethereum creator, Vitalik Buterin, has proposed a radical shift in the network's architecture to pivot from the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to the open standard RISC-V architecture for smart contracts.

This proposal, outlined in a recent blog post, is a response to the network's decreasing activity and revenue, which has become a pressing issue for the blockchain.

In the week of March 30, the Ethereum network only collected 3.18 ETH (approximately $5,000) in blob fees for base-layer activity, highlighting the urgent need for solutions.

"The network is becoming less used, and crucially, is collecting less revenue to pay validators. Whereas at the height of DeFi, validators were earning around 0.08 ETH per day in total, in the past few months the numbers have fallen to around 3-4 ETH per week, or about 0.5 ETH per day," Buterin stated.

This shift in usage has also brought about a decline in Ether's value, with analysts warning that if usage continues shifting away from the mainnet, Ether's price could fall further, possibly to $1,100.

To counter this trend and maintain support for existing contracts, Buterin suggests a hybrid approach, keeping old EVM contracts running alongside new RISC-V-based ones. This could involve using a RISC-V interpreter to execute old bytecode or running two systems in parallel within the protocol.

Over time, this integration could also open doors for Ethereum to support other virtual machines, such as Move, which is utilized by projects like Aptos and Solana.

"This would enable the ecosystem to benefit from the modularity and optimization efforts of other blockchain and programming language communities," Buterin explained.

This proposal comes ahead of Ethereum's scheduled "Pectra" upgrade on May 7, which aims to improve scalability, user experience, and validator limits. Buterin believes that for the execution layer to match the improvements seen in the consensus layer, a more fundamental change is required.

"We need to pivot to a fundamentally different architecture for the base layer, one that is designed to be used in the very high-throughput regime where the chain will operate with Pectra and beyond," he added.

RISC-V's native support for modularity and optimization aligns well with Pectra's focus on improving throughput and programmability. This collaboration could unlock significant potential for the Ethereum ecosystem.