Ethereum is under pressure. Prices are dropping, network fees are at their lowest since 2020, and sentiment around the L1 is turning bearish—even as activity on Layer 2s surges. In the middle of this, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has stepped back into the spotlight with a bold proposal: replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V, a low-level architecture designed for speed and scalability in a zero-knowledge (ZK) future.
This shift could move Ethereum from an interpreted model to "native" execution, slashing computational overhead by up to 1000x. It also opens the door to dramatically raising gas limits on L1—provided other bottlenecks, like zkVM-friendly state formats, are optimized.
Is this the architectural leap Ethereum needs? And will the Ethereum Foundation back such a radical move? Tune in as we break down what this could mean for ETH's future as crypto's leading smart contract platform.
Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed by The Block Runner are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
0:00 Intro 00:08 Starting Ethereum discussion today. 00:59 Only Ethereum seemed build-worthy. 01:20 Back to Ethereum discussion. 02:28 Why no Ethereum bullishness? 02:53 Gway is billionth of ETH. 03:33 DeFi, NFTs fueled ETH fees. 05:34 Was L2 plan right? 12:26 Vitalik discusses RISC-V upgrade. 15:32 EVM core crypto infrastructure. 22:04 Discussing ERC 20 C tokens.
