Why Ethereum Abandoned eWASM for RISC-V Architecture

Vitalik Buterin declared that Ethereum has ditched eWASM in support of RISC-V. These discontinuities in The Merge and the swift development of SNARK technology necessitated the critical shift to zkEVM compatibility.

Ethereum gave up on its long-awaited eWASM upgrade. Instead, the network has been made compatible with the RISC-V architecture. This change was described by co-founder Vitalik Buterin at Pragma Taipei in April 2025.

Buterin explained why this change occurred, according to WuBlockchain on X. The Merge was heavily delayed, and the SNARK technology developed much faster, changing the technical priorities of Ethereum.

Source: WuBlockchain 

eWASM was developed as a replacement for the faulty EVM that was destined to be high-performing and compatible. The upgrade was supposed to bring Ethereum to a more modern level of its execution layer, yet its implementation took longer than anticipated. When scaling became necessary with zero-knowledge proofs, cryptographic verification systems became the focus of development.

The SNARK Revolution Changed Everything

SNARK-friendliness was finally the criterion. Ethereum required an execution environment that is effectively compatible with zero-knowledge proofs, and eWASM failed to satisfy that need.

RISC-V had a definite advantage. RISC-V-style models, which are the natural choice in SNARK systems, are already used in most zkEVM implementations. Production of WebAssembly proofs was less efficient and more complicated.

According to Butterin, RISC-V is now the right standard. The open-source instruction set is compatible with cryptographic verification and has fewer circuit complexity requirements regarding zero-knowledge proofs.

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zkEVM Adoption Drove the Decision

Several zkEVM projects already have RISC-V-compatible architectures, including zkSync and Polygon zkEVM, which have similar instruction sets. This usage became widespread and impacted how Ethereum was directed, making it less fragmented and allowing developers to be able to share tools across platforms.

The scaling roadmap of the network focuses on rollups. These systems would pack transactions off-chain and provide cryptographic evidence back to Ethereum. Layer-2 solutions rely on effective generation of proof, and RISC-V fits this model well, simplifying the verification of networks.

Ethereum is still adopting a modular development philosophy. The shift encourages continuous enhancement without significant disturbances, enhancing rollup performance over time and retaining long-term decentralization as a priority. RISC-V is flexible enough to support protocol upgrades in the future and invite a wider spectrum of ecosystem members.

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