Ethereum’s Bold Shift to RISC-V: Vitalik Buterin Unveils Game-Changing Upgrade

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has revealed why the network is abandoning eWASM in favor of RISC-V. In a fireside chat at Pragma Taipei 2025, Buterin explained that the original plan to replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with eWASM faced significant delays, particularly due to setbacks with “The Merge” and the growing importance of SNARKs.

To ensure Ethereum remains compatible with zkEVM implementations, RISC-V is now being positioned as the future standard. This shift reflects Ethereum’s broader goal of enabling more efficient and privacy-focused smart contract execution across its ecosystem.

Developer Tools See Progress, but Gaps Remain

Developers working on Ethereum have seen meaningful improvements in the past 18 months, as indicated by comments from Pragma Taipei speakers. The development time from idea to functional MVP has been shortened by Web3.js libraries such as Foundry. Some challenges were emphasized by Buterin as well.

Most of the tutorials for writing code in Solidity are outdated, while solutions for zero-knowledge (ZK) smart contracts are falling behind. Large language models (LLMs) can assist developers in writing code, but, being based on outdated training sets, they overlook updated smart contract patterns and updated libraries.

However, Buterin’s advice for the network is to concentrate on improving standard libraries and simplifying main workflows. This would include easier upgradeability of contracts, integration of oracle functionality, and ERC-20/native tokens. Most of these will be aimed at developers trying to take advantage of new technologies such as enhanced ZK apps.

Rise of Mini-Apps Boosts Ethereum’s Usability

The Ethereum environment is evolving with small apps and user-oriented projects. Projects such as the World Coin Ecosystem and Forecaster allow developers to create apps that are integrated with the blockchain without signing up in the usual manner involving email addresses. Games and payment apps are also gaining popularity.

Despite this progress, problems remain. Buterin spoke about walled gardens and lock-in wallets in which a user is required to utilize the same wallet client. While open-source initiatives can solve this problem, financial gain drives platforms towards building in-house solutions rather than benefiting the community as a whole.

The future success of Ethereum will rely on finding a balance between being decentralized and being user-friendly, ensuring that it is easy for individuals to switch between their wallets and clients.

Also Read: Ethereum Lags Behind Bitcoin as Past Cycle Pattern Repeats in 2025