Recently browsing Farcaster, I saw Vitalik share a series of ideas about Ethereum's execution layer upgrades, which are quite interesting. In simple terms, Ethereum is undertaking two major moves.

First, regarding the state tree. Currently, Ethereum uses a hexadecimal Keccak MPT structure, which isn't the most efficient. Vitalik's plan is to switch to a binary tree structure (EIP-7864), using a more efficient hash function. What's the benefit of this? Merkle branches can be shortened by 4 times, proof efficiency can improve by 3 to 100 times, and the access costs between adjacent storage slots will also decrease. It sounds like both network performance and verification efficiency will be boosted.

Even more interesting is the reform of the virtual machine. In the long term, Ethereum plans to gradually replace the EVM with a RISC-V architecture. This won't happen overnight but will be done in three phases: first testing at the pre-compile layer, then allowing users to deploy contracts based on the new VM, and finally transitioning the entire EVM. The goal is to achieve higher execution efficiency, better proof friendliness, and a simpler protocol design.

In plain terms, these upgrades are all about solving the current efficiency bottlenecks Ethereum faces. If these improvements are successfully implemented, they will greatly benefit network scalability and client-side proof capabilities. That's also why I've been paying attention to Ethereum-related ecosystem projects on Gate recently — I feel there will be many opportunities ahead.