Vitalik: Ethereum is overly complex, and L1 should simplify to a level "close to Bitcoin" within five years.

Introduction Vitalik's latest article "Simplifying Ethereum L1" advocates reducing protocol complexity by introducing RISC-V, promoting STARK technology, 3-slot finality and other mechanisms, with the goal of making Ethereum "simplified to the level of Bitcoin" within five years. (Synopsis: Ethereum Foundation refuses to disclose "Vitalik voting weight", governance transparency questioned by the community: fundamental centralization) (Background supplement: Vitalik talks about AI: "Year Ring Model" sees the reversal of the competitive landscape of AI in China and the United States) Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote today under the title "Simplifying L1" that Ethereum wants to become "the world ledger of civilization assets and records", Scalability and resilience are needed. He suggested that one of the often underestimated elements of achieving resilience is "simplicity of the protocol", which allows more developers to participate in core development, reduces the risk of errors, reduces maintenance costs, and thus strengthens the overall decentralized foundation. He used Bitcoin as an example to illustrate the many benefits of its simple protocol, and as a contrast, he reflected on Ethereum's over-design, multi-functional diversity, which has led to maintenance difficulties, high barriers to entry, and error-prone in the past, and hopes to make the Ethereum core protocol "close to Bitcoin" in the next five years. Simplifying the consensus layer: embracing 3-slot finality and STARK technology First, Vitalik wants to greatly simplify Ethereum's "consensus system" and use a new method called "3-slot finality" to determine blocks, remove many complex settings, and even only need 200 lines of code to implement, and the security is better. In addition, he promoted the use of STARK technology to compress authentication information so that all nodes can participate without relying on a few people and avoiding centralization. Finally, he also suggested redesigning the entry and exit mechanism for validators to make the overall consensus protocol lighter and easier to verify. Note: Slots are a "unit of time" in Ethereum's Beacon Chain, and each slot is 12 seconds. Simplified execution layer: Switching from EVM to RISC-V Then, at the execution layer, Vitalik complained that the EVM had become an unnecessary burden by overoptimizing specific cryptographic applications. He reiterated the radical approach previously proposed to replace the EVM with an open-source instruction set RISC-V or a similar compact VM, listing several advantages: 100x efficiency improvement in ZK environment Simple instruction set structure, easier for developers to get started Contract size limit can be increased Support for multi-language development (not only Solidity) He also admits that this conversion will be time-consuming, and it is still recommended to implement some lightweight upgrades to EVMs in the short term (such as increasing the contract size limit). Read more: Ethereum "changed RISC-V" to scare away developers? OG Warning: ETH Ecosystem Will Be Redistributed, Small Projects Will Leave Solana "Color Code Partitioning" Strategy In practice, Vitalik further proposed the "color code partitioning" strategy, which can ensure that compatibility and user experience are not sacrificed during the conversion process. This strategy divides the features in the Ethereum protocol into three categories according to their importance and risk, so as to ensure that existing applications continue to operate while making the protocol body simpler and more maintainable. 1) Green Zone: Consensus key area, must be minimalist This part of the code will directly affect "which block is valid". All nodes must execute this procedure without any errors. So the goal here is to be minimalist, verifiable, and with low risk of error. 2) Orange Zone: Historical compatibility zone that can be left for specific implementations These exist to preserve past historical transactions, contracts, old version functionality. Although new nodes may not need these features, old contracts still rely on it to execute historical data. 3) Yellow Zone: The tool auxiliary area is not part of the blockchain consensus, but it can help users understand and developers can operate it. For example, when Etherscan displays account information, it interprets the operational details of ERC-4337, but this information itself does not affect the consensus of the chain. Some block builders or wallets optimize based on this data. Eventually, Vitalik hopes to remove the current complex EVM from Ethereum's consensus core and replace it with a smart contract interpreter written in RISC-V that is deployed on-chain and runs as a general contract. In this way, the core of Ethereum only needs to understand the RISC-V virtual machine, which greatly simplifies the protocol logic; For applications that need to execute old contracts, this interpreter can parse past EVM instructions. This design allows Ethereum to simplify the main system while still preserving compatibility. Specify the "maximum number of code lines" target In addition, Vitalik suggested that Ethereum should use the same set of standard tools and formats for different technology layers in the future, which will make it easier for developers to get started and improve the performance and security of the overall network. At the same time, he also called on Ethereum to set a maximum protocol code line target, like the lightweight deep learning framework tinygrad, and push the design culture from "functionalism" to "minimization". Only through clean design can Ethereum truly become a globally trusted, decentralized, and maintainable infrastructure. Related reports ADA founder chokes Ethereum's "three major shortcomings": Vitalik admits that Cardano is better, ETH may disappear in a decade Technology "What is RISC-V advocated by Vitalik? Why CKB-VM Why RISC-V? Breaking down Vitalik's strategic ambition to reframe Ethereum's executive layer with "RISC-V instead of EVM" "Vitalik: Ethereum is overly complex, L1 should be simplified to a level "close to Bitcoin" within five years" This article was first published in BlockTempo's "Dynamic Trends - The Most Influential Blockchain News Media".