What exactly is RISC-V? Why Vitalik wants to replace EVM with it

Author: binji, pre-Coinbase product; translated by: AIMan@Golden Finance

What exactly is RISC-V? Why are cryptocurrency enthusiasts talking about it?

Here is a simple explanation.

First of all, RISC-V is not a cryptocurrency, but a real-world computer language, which engineers use to build chips and processors...mobile phones, laptops, sensors, etc. It is the program that the computer actually runs.

You may have heard of Intel or ARM chips that use private, closed instruction sets. RISC-V is the opposite. It is open source. Anyone can build on this basis, kind of like Linux for computer hardware. It is open + customizable + It is growing rapidly.

So what does this have to do with Ethereum? Ethereum runs smart contracts on machines called EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), but EVM is custom-made like other virtual machines and is different from the language used by other computing worlds. It's hard to optimize

Many newer technologies, especially zk proof, have secretly compiled Ethereum to RISC-V to make things run faster, so the question Vitalik asked this week is: What if Ethereum uses RISC-V directly?

Why do this?

• Zero-knowledge proof better performance

• Easier to build and maintain for a long time

• Align with mainstream tools and compilers

• Opening up a simpler and more efficient blockchain design path

But there are some tradeoffs, with some developers believing that RISC-V is not designed for Ethereum style, others worrying that it won't help Rollup and may even overcomplicate L1, which is currently a deep technical debate.

By the way, the transition from EVM to RISC-V is more like changing the engine of the car than the car itself. Vitalik's proposal highlights ways to achieve this without having to readjust too many gears (applications, languages).

It is worth noting that this is a long-term change, and Ethereum focuses and should focus on more current things (that is, the truth), however, this long- term thinking proves that Ethereum is not just trying to win the next cycle, it is also trying to win the next century.