How to evaluate Vitalik Buterin's latest proposal for simplifying L1?

Author: Haotian

A friend asked me how to evaluate Vitalik Buterin's latest proposal for simplifying L1? Honestly, it can be viewed in any way; the current narrative in Crypto technology has truly reached a point where it's a competition of Holder "faith." If you don't believe me, I can provide both "black" and "red" versions of the evaluation at the same time:

Black粉版本——Making Ethereum as simple as Bitcoin, proclaiming the failure of Ethereum's universal world computer strategy:

This article highlights that Vitalik is finally willing to admit that Ethereum's past obsession with "complexification" needs to be adjusted. The essence of this "slimming down" movement directly declares that the boast Vitalik made back then — the "world computer" — has become an unattainable crypto holy grail.

Replacing EVM with RISC-V may seem like a systemic overhaul and technological upgrade on the surface, but in reality, it equals the complete failure of the previous layer2 Rollup-Centric grand strategy. While Solana attracts a large number of users with its simple architecture and purely commercialized MEME tactics, Ethereum is still struggling with how to manage the interoperability of hundreds of L2s. Rather than being a proactive optimization strategy, it is more like being forced to self-mutilate in order to survive.

As an old chain that ranks second in the consensus of the crypto world, when it can no longer compete with new chains in terms of performance, one day it suddenly tries to leverage its age by putting itself alongside Bitcoin to create a sense of presence; this can only be seen as a strategic contraction. It's hard to imagine that after 10 years of technological iteration, the final answer is to "learn from Bitcoin to simplify." It's important to note that the conclusion of simplifying the chain was written in the code by Satoshi Nakamoto as early as 2009.

And the year that aimed to revolutionize the "Internet" and tried to move the entire internet onto the next-generation universal computing platform based on blockchain has thus perished, leaving no trace behind.

Pink Version - Ethereum finally simplifies complexity, securely carrying everything with a brand new 'modular' mindset:

As I have stated in several of my previous articles, Vitalik's proposal essentially indicates that the current blockchain industry has shifted from a "single dominant player" broad competition to a "collaborative synergy" deep optimization strategy. This means that Ethereum has finally set aside the ivory tower image of technology representing everything and is beginning to genuinely embrace the community and move closer to the "market".

Replacing the EVM with RISC-V will blow the infra innovation horn of "ZK technical narrative + modularity", allowing Ethereum to regain its second spring with a new paradigm technical narrative.

A potential performance improvement of 100 times means that Ethereum will provide stronger support for the Layer2 ecosystem while maintaining security. In the past, Ethereum was constrained by the large Layer2 ecosystem, but with the self-reliant L1 taking on a new role as a "security consensus layer," it can confront other Layer1s head-on while avoiding being drained by the upstarts of Layer2.

"Learning from Bitcoin" is not a surrender to complexity, but a tribute to the first principles of the "security-first path." At least Bitcoin has validated the feasibility of this path. With the support of a brand new modular concept, Ethereum allows Layer 1 to focus on secure settlement while providing ample space for Layer 2 to unleash innovative applications.

This seemingly hands-off yet spiritually guiding ecological architecture will prove to be the most efficient over time.

From a macro perspective, while high-performance layer 1 competitors like Solana are still pursuing flashy single metrics, Ethereum has already begun laying out its strategy for the next decade: it's not about computing everything, but about securely hosting everything. Because, over the past several cycles, the real winners in the public chain space haven't triumphed through performance, but through "stability"—and the prerequisite for stability is simplicity.

Look, the biggest problem with Ethereum right now is "consensus split". Indeed, there is a large group of faith-driven holders who are deeply invested in the technology narrative, but the army of haters who have long turned against it and begun to curse it is also growing stronger.

But in fact, whether Ethereum is good or bad is just a change of perspective. The truth of the matter is that we see because we "believe", and we perish because we "do not believe".