Ethereum Aims to Boost Proving Efficiency with Binary State Trees and New VM

Ethereum's execution layer is set to undergo significant transformations as co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlines two key proposals aimed at enhancing the blockchain's proving efficiency and client-side capabilities.

The first proposal centers on replacing Ethereum's current state tree with a binary structure, which would result in substantial reductions in data bandwidth costs. The new design utilizes a more efficient hash function, Blake3, or Poseidon, leading to up to 100 times faster performance compared to the existing keccak setup.

The second proposal involves transitioning away from the EVM virtual machine and adopting RISC-V as its replacement. Buterin argues that this change would reduce the proving bottleneck by over 80% and allow for more efficient client-side verification.