Ethereum Developers Propose Binary State Tree and RISC-V VM Replacement

Ethereum developers are working to improve proof efficiency on the blockchain network. To address this challenge, two technical changes have been proposed: a new binary state tree and a replacement for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with a more efficient virtual machine.

The binary state tree would replace the existing hexary keccak Merkle Patricia Tree, which is designed for different priorities than the current proving-heavy architecture. This change would reduce Merkle proof size by about 75% and branches by 3–4x, making client-side branch verification more efficient and reducing data bandwidth requirements.

The page-based storage system in the binary tree design groups adjacent storage slots into pages of 64 to 256 slots, allowing contracts that read from initial storage slots to benefit from batch efficiency rather than individual access costs. This could save more than 10,000 gas per transaction for decentralized applications that load data from initial storage slots.

In the long term, a replacement for the EVM with a RISC-V virtual machine is proposed. The RISC-V stack would align with existing zero-knowledge provers, reduce precompiles, and enable users to generate zero-knowledge proofs locally about account interactions with specific data. This change would address fundamental inefficiencies in the current architecture rather than managing them through accumulated precompiles and workarounds.