Ethereum’s technical roadmap has taken a surprising turn as the network shifts from eWASM to RISC-V.
Initially, eWASM was designed to replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine, offering faster execution and broader language support.
However, delays surrounding “The Merge” and the growing importance of zero-knowledge proofs, or SNARKs, changed Ethereum’s priorities. Vitalik emphasized that moving to RISC-V, a widely adopted open standard, better supports SNARK-friendly execution and aligns with the future of Ethereum’s scalability and security.
eWASM promised to modernize Ethereum by replacing the EVM with a WebAssembly-based execution environment. This approach aimed to make smart contracts faster and more versatile, supporting multiple programming languages. Despite the potential, progress stalled due to the complexities of “The Merge” and other network upgrades. Meanwhile, the rise of SNARKs, which allow proof of computations without revealing underlying data, became a priority for Ethereum developers seeking scalability and privacy.
RISC-V offers a simpler, standardized instruction set that can efficiently support zkEVM, Ethereum’s approach to zero-knowledge execution. By adopting RISC-V, Ethereum ensures that future implementations can handle SNARK-based computations more effectively than eWASM could. For example, Polygon zkEVM, a leading zero-knowledge rollup on Ethereum, has already embraced RISC-V-compatible designs to optimize contract execution while maintaining security guarantees.
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Vitalik Buterin Reveals: Why Ethereum Abandoned eWASM for RISC-V? In a fireside chat at Pragma Taipei in April 2025, Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin explained the pivot from eWASM to RISC-V. While eWASM was initially planned to replace the flawed EVM, delays in "The Merge" Show more
