Vitalik Outlines Ethereum Execution Layer Roadmap Focusing on State Tree and VM Upgrades

ChainCatcher report: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on social media outlining Ethereum’s execution layer roadmap, focusing on two key changes: the state tree and the virtual machine. Regarding the state tree, Vitalik supports upgrading the current hexadecimal Merkle Patricia tree to a binary tree based on a more efficient hash function via EIP-7864. This change can reduce Merkle branch sizes by 4x, lowering the bandwidth cost for client data verification. Additionally, the hash function could be replaced with Blake3 or the Poseidon family, significantly improving proof efficiency. The binary tree design also groups storage slots into “pages,” reducing the cost of accessing adjacent storage—many DeFi applications could save over 10,000 gas per transaction. Furthermore, the simpler binary tree structure leaves room for metadata bits to enable future state expiry functionality. On the virtual machine front, Vitalik proposes a long-term direction to replace the EVM, potentially adopting the RISC-V architecture. The new VM must meet four goals: higher raw execution efficiency, eliminating the need for most precompiles; superior proof efficiency compared to EVM; support for generating ZK proofs on the client side; and maximal simplification of implementation code. He noted that while “EVM + GPU” is sufficient for Ethereum’s current needs, a better VM would make the protocol significantly more powerful. The deployment roadmap consists of three phases: first, replace precompiles with the new VM; second, allow users to deploy smart contracts built on the new VM; and finally, retire the EVM entirely, transitioning to smart contracts written in the new VM while maintaining full backward compatibility.