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Vitalik Buterin shifts the Ethereum scaling discussion away from Layer 2 (L2) and into the core of the protocol.
The Russian-Canadian innovator argues that Ethereum’s biggest long-term limitations are not aggregate or blocking capacity, but rather a deeper architectural bottleneck in the network state tree and virtual machine.
Vitalik Buterin Proposes Deep Refactoring of Ethereum System Targeting Bottlenecks in State Tree and Virtual Machines
According to Buterin, two components – the state tree of the network and the virtual machine – account for more than 80% of the test costs. He says this is a crucial issue as zero-knowledge (ZK) technology becomes the focus of Ethereum’s path.
“Today I’m going to focus on two big things: state tree changes, and default media changes,” hostess Which are both “major bottlenecks we must face if we want effective testing.”
Binary Tree Restructuring
At the heart of the proposal is EIP-7864which will replace Ethereum’s current hex Merkle Tree with a binary tree design.
The change may seem subtle, but its ramifications are significant. It will produce binary trees Merkel’s evidence It is about 4 times shorter than the current architecture, which greatly reduces the verification bandwidth requirements.
This makes thin clients and privacy-preserving applications cheaper and more viable.
The new architecture will also group storage slots into “pages,” allowing applications that load related data to do so more efficiently.
Many decentralized applications (dApps) constantly access nearby storage slots. This means that the update can Save more than 10,000 gas in some cases .
Buterin also suggested combining the tree change with more efficient hash functions, which could bring an additional gain in proof generation speed.
Most importantly, the redesign will make the Ethereum base layer more “installer friendly,” allowing ZK applications to integrate directly with the Ethereum state instead of building parallel systems.
When enlarged, the binary tree proposal aims to consolidate a decade of lessons learned in state governance in a cleaner and future-proof structure.
A future beyond the electronic voting machine?
Even more ambitious is Buterin’s long-term vision for the Ethereum execution engine. He floated the idea of eventually moving beyond the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to a RISC-V-based architecture.
RISC-V is a widely used open instruction set that can offer greater efficiency and simplicity.
Buterin argued that Ethereum’s growing reliance on preprints for special cases reflects a deeper discomfort with the EVM itself.
If the core promise of Ethereum is general programming, then the virtual machine should fully support this vision without the need for excessive solutions. A virtual machine built on RISC-V can:
- It reduces complexity
- Improve the efficiency of raw execution, and
- It is best compatible with modern zero-knowledge test systems, many of which already use RISC-V environments internally.
Shortly, Buterin proposed a “pre-vectored mathematical compiler”, described as a “graphics processing unit for the electronic device”. This can significantly speed up encryption processes.
In the long term, it offers a gradual transition in which RISC-V first performs pretranslations, then supports user-published contracts, and eventually internalizes the electronic voting machine itself as a consensus layer.
The complexity of the discussion
However, not everyone is convinced that Ethereum needs deeper changes. The DBCrypto analyst criticized what he described With the growing divestment all the way to Ethereumincluding new frameworks aimed at addressing assembly fragmentation.
Each additional layer, he argued, increases complexity, introduces assumptions of trust, and creates additional potential attack surfaces.
This tension reflects a wider debate about whether Ethereum should continue to put solutions on its current design or find its foundation.
However, according to Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s architecture must evolve and adapt as zero-knowledge proofs move from a niche to a necessity.
It suggests that the next stage of scaling may not be in Layer 2, but rather in the core of Ethereum.
