Recently, Vitalik Buterin shared some interesting thoughts about Ethereum's future roadmap, and there are two major upgrades being considered for the execution layer.

The first is about the state tree. Currently, Ethereum uses a hexadecimal-based Keccak MPT structure, but it plans to migrate to a more efficient binary tree structure with better hash functions (EIP-7864). If this materializes, Merkle branches could be four times shorter, and this means proof efficiency could increase dramatically by 3 to 100 times. Plus, there’s an additional benefit for accessing nearby storage slots, making it cheaper.

The second is a more ambitious transformation—replacing the EVM with a RISC-V architecture. This isn’t an overnight change, but it will be done gradually in three phases. First, RISC-V will be used for precompiles. Then, users can deploy contracts on this new VM. Finally, the EVM itself will become a smart contract running on the new VM. The goal is clear: higher execution efficiency, better proof-friendliness, and a simpler protocol design.

If you follow discussions on Farcaster or developer forums, many are excited about this direction because it’s fundamental for Ethereum’s scalability moving forward. These upgrades are essentially Ethereum’s answer to overcoming the main bottleneck in the execution layer, and they are crucial for building a stronger foundation for future scaling solutions.

Overall, this shows that Ethereum remains focused on long-term efficiency, not just adding features but also optimizing the core architecture.