Vitalik Buterin Says Ethereum Should Ditch Old Feature He Made
The Ethereum co-founder says modular exponentiation precompile, or modexp, is slowing down scaling and causing problems.
Quick overview
- Vitalik Buterin proposes replacing the modular exponentiation precompile (modexp) to improve Ethereum's scaling and zero-knowledge proof systems.
- Modexp causes verification delays up to 50 times worse than average blocks, impacting the efficiency of cryptographic proofs.
- Only 0.01% of Ethereum users need modexp, leading Buterin to suggest using standard EVM bytecode instead to enhance overall network performance.
- The proposal aims to prioritize ecosystem stability and scaling progress over maintaining legacy features, despite potential pushback from some developers.
Vitalik Buterin thinks it’s time to dump something he built. The Ethereum co-founder says modular exponentiation precompile, or modexp, is slowing down scaling and causing problems for zero-knowledge proof systems.
The problem is serious. When generating zero-knowledge proofs, modexp creates verification delays up to 50 times worse than average blocks. Buterin admitted on X that he “bows his head in shame” as the original inventor of the feature, but says it’s time to replace it.
Zero-knowledge EVMs generate cryptographic proofs that validate Ethereum computations off-chain. This enables faster transaction processing without compromising security. But the prover component responsible for creating these proofs struggles badly with modexp operations, which are mainly used in RSA encryption and signing functions.
Here’s the catch: only about 0.01% of Ethereum users actually need modexp functionality. Buterin argues that instead of investing resources to optimize a feature almost nobody uses, Ethereum should replace it with standard EVM bytecode. This would increase gas costs for those few users but dramatically reduce proof generation complexity for the entire network.
Applications that need modular exponentiation could wrap their operations in SNARKs, an alternative cryptographic proof system that handles the inefficiency better. Buterin’s proposal prioritizes ecosystem stability and scaling progress over maintaining legacy features with narrow use cases.
The proposal changes how Ethereum handles cryptographic operations that bog down zero-knowledge proof systems. The Foundation keeps bringing up privacy these days. Back in October, they warned that without better privacy protections, Ethereum could end up as “the backbone of global surveillance rather than global freedom.”
Last month, Buterin detailed GKR, a cryptographic technique that verifies calculations ten times faster than traditional methods. The protocol processes 2 million calculations per second on standard laptops and can validate entire Ethereum transactions using just 50 consumer graphics cards, compared to traditional methods requiring 100 times more computational work.
That breakthrough matters because faster verification means cheaper transactions and better privacy across the network. The modexp proposal fits into this broader push to make Ethereum more efficient for privacy-preserving technologies.
Getting rid of modexp won’t be popular with everyone. Some developers built applications around it. Buterin’s fine with that trade-off if it speeds up Ethereum’s privacy and scaling plans.
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