Vitalik Buterin has shifted the Ethereum scaling debate back to the protocol’s base layer, arguing that deep architectural bottlenecks in the state tree and virtual machine now pose greater long-term constraints than Layer 2 rollups.
Buterin said the state tree and execution engine account for more than 80% of zero-knowledge proving costs, framing them as critical obstacles as ZK technology becomes central to Ethereum’s roadmap.
“Today I’ll focus on two big things: state tree changes, and VM changes,”
Said Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin.
“The big bottlenecks that we have to address if we want efficient proving.”
At the centre of the proposal is EIP-7864, which would replace Ethereum’s hexary Merkle Patricia tree with a binary tree structure that could produce proofs roughly four times shorter, reduce verification bandwidth and lower gas costs for decentralised applications accessing related storage slots.
Buterin also outlined pairing the redesign with more efficient hash functions and introducing a “vectorised math precompile” described as a “GPU for the EVM,” while floating a phased transition towards a RISC-V–based virtual machine to improve execution efficiency and better align with modern ZK systems.
The longer-term vision would see RISC-V first power precompiles, then user-deployed contracts and eventually subsume the EVM as a compatibility layer, reflecting concerns that Ethereum’s growing reliance on special-case precompiles signals structural limitations in its current execution model.
However, critics including analyst DBCrypto have warned that additional deep-layer modifications risk compounding complexity and attack surfaces, highlighting an ongoing debate over whether Ethereum should continue layering solutions on top of its design or fundamentally rework its core architecture as ZK proofs move from niche to necessity.
At the time of reporting, Ethereum price was $1,923.74.