Vitalik Buterin Proposes Plan to Cut Ethereum Privacy Costs

Ethereum privacy costs — Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has advocated for a protocol change designed to significantly reduce the costs of implementing quantum-resistant privacy features on the network.

Buterin is pushing for the inclusion of EIP-8288 in “I-star,” the major network upgrade planned to follow the upcoming Hegota fork. The proposal aims to make RISC-V the canonical instruction set for Ethereum, a move that would streamline and lower the expense of running advanced cryptographic operations, including those needed for post-quantum privacy.

The technical change is framed as a step toward future-proofing the network against potential threats from quantum computing, which could break current encryption standards. By standardizing on the open-source RISC-V architecture, the cost of executing complex, quantum-safe cryptographic proofs would be reduced.

Buterin’s endorsement signals a prioritization of long-term security and privacy infrastructure within Ethereum’s development roadmap. The proposal’s inclusion in a future hard fork would require broad consensus from Ethereum developers and stakeholders.