Enhancing Ethereum’s Performance
In a bid to significantly enhance Ethereum’s performance, co-founder Vitalik Buterin has unveiled a proposition advocating for the transition from the existing Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) contract language to the RISC-V instruction set architecture. This initiative, outlined on April 20, targets critical long-term challenges facing the Ethereum network, including the issues of stable data availability sampling, ensuring competitive block production rates, and optimizing zero-knowledge EVM proving mechanisms.
The RISC-V Proposal
Buterin posits that integrating the RISC-V architecture into smart contracts could bolster the competitive landscape of block production and enrich the execution of zero-knowledge protocols on the blockchain. He pointed out that while the beam chain approach is showing potential in enhancing Ethereum’s consensus layer, a more radical transformation may be essential at the execution level to achieve comparable improvements in overall network efficiency.
Challenges Facing Ethereum
The proposal comes amid Ethereum’s ongoing difficulties in increasing throughput while grappling with the growing competition from new monolithic blockchains. The urgency of this change is heightened by dwindling investor confidence in Ethereum, once the trailblazer in smart contract technology.
Declining Network Fees
Additionally, recent trends indicate a notable decline in Ethereum’s network transaction fees. For instance, the week of March 30 saw the blob fees charged by Ethereum layer-2 solutions plummet to a low of 3.18 Ether (ETH), roughly translating to around $5,000. April 2025 witnessed network fees fall to their lowest point since 2020, averaging merely $0.16 per transaction, as cited by Brian Quinlivan, marketing director at Santiment.
This drastic drop in fees has been attributed to a noticeable reduction in transactions on Ethereum’s base layer, with users increasingly opting for layer-2 scaling solutions or engaging with smart contracts instead. While these layer-2 solutions have successfully diminished transaction costs, they have also raised concerns regarding the sustainability of Ethereum’s base layer revenue, which could pose a threat to its market share.
The Future of Ether
Reflecting this trend, the price of Ether has plunged to historic lows and might further deteriorate to around $1,100 if the erosion of investor confidence continues unchecked. This evolving landscape poses significant questions about the viability of Ethereum in the face of intensifying competition and shifting user preferences.
