Vitalik Buterin proposes two Ethereum upgrades to cut ZK proof bottlenecks by over 80%

Vitalik Buterin has proposed two structural upgrades for Ethereum, outlining under EIP7864 a shift from the network's hexary Merkle Patricia state tree to a binary tree and a longer-term transition from the EVM to a RISCV-based virtual machine, according to his latest technical proposal. EIP7864, currently developed by Guillaume Ballet and other contributors, introduces a binary tree with a more efficient hash function that cuts Merkle branch length by four times, reduces client-side verification costs and bandwidth needs for tools like Helios and PIR by the same factor, and adopts page-based storage estimated to save over 10,000 gas per transaction for frequently used dapps. Buterin further suggests adopting RISCV—the architecture already used by ZK provers—via a three-stage roadmap: starting with RISCV for precompilations, then allowing user-deployed contracts, and ultimately retiring the EVM in favor of an EVM reimplemented as a smart contract in the new VM, while maintaining full backward compatibility with only minor gas-cost adjustments. Together, these changes address what Buterin says accounts for over 80% of the bottleneck in efficient ZK proof generation on Ethereum.