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

Ethereum is good or bad, it's just a matter of perspective.

Written by: Haotian

A friend asked me how to evaluate Vitalik Buterin's latest proposal to simplify L1? Actually, it can be viewed in any way; the current narrative of Crypto technology has truly reached a point where it competes on the "faith" of the holders. 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——让Ether像Bitcoin一样简单，宣告着Ethereum通用世界计算机战略的失败：

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

Replacing EVM with RISC-V may seem like a systematic overhaul and technological upgrade on the surface, but in reality, it equates to a complete failure of the past layer2 Rollup-Centric grand strategy. While Solana attracts a large number of users with its simple architecture and purely commercial MEME-like tactics, Ethereum is still entangled in how to manage the interoperability of hundreds of L2s. Rather than calling this an active optimization strategy, it would be more accurate to say it is a forced self-mutilation for survival.

As an old chain with the second consensus in the crypto world, when it can no longer compete with new chains in terms of performance, suddenly one day, relying on its age to gain presence alongside Bitcoin looks like a strategic contraction. It is hard to imagine that after 10 years of iterative technological development, the final answer is "learning from Bitcoin to simplify." It should be noted that the conclusion of simplifying the chain was already written in the code by Satoshi Nakamoto back in 2009.

And that year, the intention to revolutionize the "Internet" and attempt to move the entire internet onto the next-generation universal computing platform of blockchain thus perished, leaving not a trace behind.

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

As I have written in several previous articles, Vitalik's proposal essentially indicates that the current blockchain industry has transformed from a "monopoly" broad competition into a "strategic alliances" depth optimization strategy, meaning that Ethereum has finally let go of the ivory tower image where technology represents everything and is beginning to truly embrace the community and align with the "market."

Replacing EVM with RISC-V will sound the horn of "ZK technology narrative + modular" infrastructure innovation, allowing Ethereum to rejuvenate with a new paradigm of technological narrative.

The potential for a 100-fold performance improvement means that Ethereum will provide a more robust support base for the Layer2 ecosystem while maintaining security. In the past, Ethereum was limited by the large Layer2 ecosystem, but the self-reliant L1 will take on a new role as a "security consensus layer," allowing it to confront other Layer1s head-on while avoiding being drained by the minor Layer2 players.

"Learning from Bitcoin" is not a surrender to complexity, but a tribute to the first principles of the "security-first path." At the very least, Bitcoin has validated the feasibility of this path. With the support of a brand new modular concept, Ethereum allows L1 to focus on secure settlement while providing ample space for L2 to unleash innovative applications.

This seemingly laissez-faire 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: not to compute everything, but to securely carry everything. Because, over the past few cycles, the true winners in the public chain arena are not those who win in performance, but those who are "stable"—and the premise of stability is simplicity.

Look, the biggest problem with Ethereum right now is "consensus split". Indeed, there is a large group of faith-based holders who are stubbornly pushing the technical narrative, but the army of haters who have long turned against and insulted 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 it is because of "belief" that one sees, and because of "disbelief" that one is destroyed.