Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a long-term overhaul of Ethereum’s architecture, with the goal of dramatically reducing its complexity and making it more accessible—comparable in simplicity to Bitcoin.
In a blog post published on Saturday, Buterin outlined a vision to streamline the Ethereum protocol, which he says has grown increasingly unwieldy due to its expanding technical layers—from consensus mechanisms to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). According to Buterin, this complexity has made the protocol more difficult to maintain, audit, and understand, especially for new developers.
He warned that Ethereum’s trajectory risks creating a system that is overly fragile and technocratic. His solution: a multi-year roadmap focused on trimming down the “consensus-critical” components of the network.
“Even a smart high school student is capable of fully wrapping their head around and understanding the Bitcoin protocol,” Buterin noted. “A programmer can write a client as a hobby project.”
Complexity vs. Usability
Ethereum’s base layer has grown in complexity over time, driven by support for advanced features like smart contracts and zero-knowledge proofs. However, these advances have also introduced trade-offs, such as greater potential for bugs, increased difficulty in implementing upgrades, and a steeper learning curve for developers.
In contrast, Bitcoin has maintained a lean and stable foundation, built around core elements like transactions, proof-of-work, and block creation.
Buterin’s proposed simplifications start with reworking Ethereum’s consensus layer, known as the beacon chain. He points to its intricate mechanics—such as epochs, slot shuffling, and sync committees—as areas ripe for streamlining.
Another significant area for reform is the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Buterin suggests incrementally phasing out the EVM and ultimately replacing it with a simpler, more efficient alternative like RISC-V. This open-source architecture could significantly improve performance, especially for zero-knowledge applications, while reducing the burden of maintaining complex code.
Balancing Change with Compatibility
Despite his call for simplification, Buterin acknowledges the need to preserve Ethereum’s existing ecosystem. To address this, he proposes a gradual transition where the current EVM and a new virtual machine could operate in parallel. Over time, legacy features would be shifted into non-consensus layers, minimizing disruption while guiding the protocol toward a leaner core.
The proposed roadmap represents a significant shift in Ethereum’s evolution—one that prioritizes long-term sustainability and accessibility, even at the cost of reworking some of its foundational components.
