Vitalik Buterin proposes a simplified L1 concept. Has Ethereum’s “world computer” vision failed?

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

Author:Haotian

Cover:Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

Some friends asked me how to evaluate Vitalik Buterin's latest proposal to simplify L1. Actually, it can be viewed in different ways. Now, the crypto technology narrative has reached a point of testing holders' "faith". Don't believe me? I can provide both "black" and "red" versions of the evaluation:

Black Fan Version - Making Ethereum as simple as Bitcoin, announcing the failure of Ethereum's universal world computer strategy:

This article shows that Vitalik is finally willing to admit that Ethereum's past focus on "complexity" needs adjustment. The essence of this "slimming" movement directly declares that Vitalik's previous boast - "world computer" - has become an unachievable crypto holy grail.

Replacing EVM with RISC-V seems to be a systematic overhaul and technical upgrade, but it actually equals the complete failure of the previous layer2 Rollup-Centric grand strategy. When Solana attracts a large number of users with its concise architecture and purely commercial MEME tactics, Ethereum is still struggling with how to manage interoperability of over a hundred L2s. Rather than calling this an active optimization strategy, it's more like being forced to self-amputate for survival.

As the second consensus chain in the crypto world, when it cannot compete with new chains in performance, suddenly trying to create a sense of existence by comparing itself to Bitcoin looks like a strategic contraction. It's hard to imagine that after 10 years of technological development, the final answer is "learning from Bitcoin to simplify". Remember, the conclusion of "simplifying the chain" was already written in the code by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009.

And the next-generation universal computing platform that once intended to revolutionize the "internet" and move the entire internet onto the blockchain has thus perished, without leaving a trace.

Red Fan Version - Ethereum finally simplifies complexity, safely carrying everything with a new "modular" mindset:

As I wrote in many previous articles, Vitalik's proposal essentially signals that the current blockchain industry has transformed from a "monopolistic" breadth competition to a "strategic alliance" depth optimization strategy, meaning Ethereum has finally let go of its ivory tower image of technical supremacy and started to truly embrace the community's approach towards the "market".

Replacing EVM with RISC-V will blow the trumpet of "ZK technology narrative + modular" infrastructure innovation, allowing Ethereum to rejuvenate with a brand new technical narrative.

The potential of 100 times performance improvement means that Ethereum will provide stronger support for the Layer2 ecosystem while maintaining security. In the past, Ethereum was limited by the Layer2 ecosystem, but now the self-strengthening L1 will take on a new positioning as a "secure consensus layer", allowing it to directly compete with other Layer1 while avoiding being exploited by Layer2 newcomers.

And "learning from Bitcoin" is not a "surrender" of complexity, but a tribute to the first-principle path of "security first". At least Bitcoin has verified the feasibility of this path. Ethereum under the new modular concept will focus L1 on secure settlement while giving L2 full space to release innovative applications.

This ecosystem architecture that seems hands-off but is actually spiritually guided will prove to be the most efficient with time.

From a macro perspective, while Solana and other high-performance Layer1 competitors are still pursuing single indicators to show off, Ethereum has already started layout for the next decade: not computing everything, but safely carrying everything. Because after several cycles, the real public chain winner is not determined by performance, but by "stability" - and the premise of stability is simplicity.

Look, Ethereum's current biggest problem is "consensus fragmentation". Certainly, there is a large group of hardcore technical narrative believers, but the black fan army that has defected and started cursing is also growing.

But actually, Ethereum is good or bad, it's just a matter of perspective. The truth is simply that because "belief" exists, we see it; because "disbelief" exists, we destroy it.

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