Vitalik elaborated on the Ethereum execution layer roadmap, focusing on two major changes: the state tree and the virtual machine

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a post on social media outlining the Ethereum execution layer roadmap, focusing on two major 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 through EIP-7864. This change can shorten the Merkle branch by four times, reducing the bandwidth cost for client data verification; at the same time, the hash function can be replaced with the Blake3 or Poseidon series, significantly improving proof efficiency.

The binary tree design will also group storage slots into "pages," lowering the access cost for adjacent storage, allowing many DeFi applications to save over 10,000 Gas per transaction. Additionally, the binary tree structure is simpler and can reserve metadata bits for future state expiration features.

On the virtual machine front, Vitalik proposed that the long-term direction is to replace the EVM, potentially adopting the RISC-V architecture. The new VM needs to meet four goals: higher raw execution efficiency, making most precompiles unnecessary; proof efficiency superior to the EVM; support for client-side generation of ZK proofs; and maximum simplification of code implementation.

He pointed out that if Ethereum only stays at the "EVM + GPU" level, it may be "sufficient," but a better VM can make the protocol stronger. The deployment roadmap is divided into three steps: the new VM will first be used to replace precompiles; then users will be allowed to deploy contracts based on the new VM; finally, the EVM will be retired, transitioning to smart contracts written with the new VM, achieving full backward compatibility.