Exploring the Future of Blockchain Technology: Ethereum and Cardano’s RISC-V Alignment
In a surprising turn of events, two of the blockchain industry’s most influential protocol architects have found common ground through a brief interaction on social media. Charles Hoskinson, the creator of Cardano, responded to a technical post by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin with an unexpected affirmation. Hoskinson stated, “It makes sense, we are using RISC-V with BitVMX. It’s the future.” This exchange marks a potential alignment of thought between two leading blockchain platforms.
Vitalik Buterin’s Vision for Ethereum’s Evolution
Buterin’s statement came in response to his newly released proposal titled “Long-term L1 Execution Layer Proposal” shared on the Ethereum Magicians forum. In this proposal, Buterin advocates for Ethereum to transition from the traditional Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to the open-source RISC-V instruction-set architecture. The shift, he suggests, would significantly enhance Ethereum’s execution layer efficiency, addressing key scaling challenges while simplifying the core codebase.
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Buterin emphasizes that the familiar account model and opcodes will remain unchanged, with opcodes like SLOAD, SSTORE, and CALL becoming accessible as RISC-V syscalls. He assures that current EVM contracts will remain operable and fully compatible with new RISC-V contracts. Implementation options range from a dual-VM setup to a more innovative interpreter-based transition.
Motivation Behind Buterin’s Proposal
The driving force behind Buterin’s suggestion is the expense of proving EVM execution within zero-knowledge circuits. He references data from Succinct’s ZK-EVM, highlighting that tasks such as deserializing inputs, initializing the witness database, computing state roots, and executing blocks consume the majority of prover cycles. Specifically, block execution accounts for approximately half of the total proving time.
Buterin posits that in certain scenarios, efficiency gains of over 100 times may be achievable by directly accessing a RISC-V virtual machine, eliminating the need to compile the EVM into RISC-V for ZK proof generation. Even if pre-compiles present a new bottleneck, Buterin is confident that the transition would yield significant performance improvements.
Cardano’s Strategic Adoption of RISC-V
Charles Hoskinson’s prompt endorsement carries significant weight, given that Cardano has been actively integrating the RISC-V architecture. Cardano’s extended UTxO model is now being enhanced with BitVMX FORCE, a collaborative project that enables Cardano dApps to leverage Bitcoin’s liquidity and decentralized finance activities.
BitVMX simulates a general-purpose CPU for Bitcoin using RISC-V, allowing Cardano’s domain-specific languages, such as Plutus and the low-level Aiken, to compile contracts that seamlessly operate on both chains. By adopting this instruction set for off-chain circuits, Cardano aims to boost zero-knowledge proof efficiency and facilitate cross-chain functionality without relying on trusted bridges.
The Appeal of RISC-V
RISC-V’s appeal lies in its open specification, which avoids licensing restrictions while granting implementers the freedom to add extensions. Additionally, its simple and orthogonal design is more compatible with zero-knowledge proof systems compared to the eclectic opcode catalog of the EVM or Bitcoin’s minimalist script. Hoskinson’s statement that “It’s the future” reflects not only Cardano’s roadmap but also a broader industry trend gaining traction within Ethereum’s research community.
The Road Ahead for Ethereum and Cardano
The potential adoption of Buterin’s proposal by Ethereum’s core development team remains uncertain. With the Beacon-chain merge, the Cancun/Deneb upgrade, and the push towards statelessness already on the agenda, the execution-layer roadmap is crowded. However, the fact that both a UTXO-based competitor and the originator of account-based smart contracts are advocating for RISC-V as a long-term goal suggests that this discussion will continue to evolve.
Buterin concludes that reducing the base layer to “well within” ten thousand lines of code might necessitate “this kind of radical change.” As of the latest updates, Cardano’s market value stands at $0.64, reflecting its ongoing developments and strategic initiatives.
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