What is RISC-V, and why does Vitalik Buterin want it for Ethereum smart contracts?

Vitalik Buterin backs RISC-V, an open-source chip architecture, to future-proof smart contracts with greater decentralization, lower costs and long-term hardware independence.

RISC-V, pronounced “risk five,” is a modern open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) based on reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles. In simple terms, it’s like a blueprint that defines a set of instructions that a processor can execute.

RISC-V is designed to be highly modular, efficient and flexible. Originally developed by the University of California in 2010, the open-source framework gives developers the flexibility to tailor its functionality and use cases, plus offers cost savings compared to proprietary ISAs like ARM or x86. This offers a wide range of uses, from supercomputers to smartphones and now blockchains like Ethereum.

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