- Vitalik Buterin highlights Leanvm, ZKVM’s proposal aimed at reducing commitment costs with four instruction ISAs and multiple linear stark.
- LEANVM focuses on XMSS aggregation and recursion, with the current 2.7S recursion aimed at 10x performance improvements.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has once again provided a major update that has attracted the attention of many in the Crypto community.
Throughout this year, Buterin emphasized that the development team has taken Ethereum further in three key areas: scalability, decentralization and network durability. He said some short-term goals are even close to being achieved.
The Lean Ethereum team has driven truly amazing work into gear this year, offering in every way to ensure Ethereum’s long-term scaling, decentralisation and resilience.
I think all of these ideas are ready to kick into gear at about the same time as https://t.co/4uimhazi5n
– vitalik.eth (@vitalikbuterin) September 6, 2025
Vitalik Buterin highlights Leanvm in its Ethereum roadmap
In the update, Vitalik highlighted a minimal ZKVM proposal called LeanVM. He emphasized that LeanVM designs are kept simple with just four instructions. Unlike the more complex Cairo, LEANVM utilizes perennial linear Stark and log-up lookup. These are two techniques to reduce commitment costs.
In other words, LeanVM tries to provide a lighter path to building a verification system on an Ethereum network.
This proposal is specifically optimized for XMSS aggregation and recursion. These two technical terms may sound complicated, but the core messages are simple. The goal is to realize a process of proving and repeating data faster and more efficiently.
Currently, recursion still takes about 2.7 seconds, but there is hope for a 10-fold increase. Imagine the network’s ability to handle proofs will be far beyond its current state if that target is achieved.
However, Vitalik has not confirmed whether LeanVM will soon be included in the official Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP). Nevertheless, the fact that he highlighted it in a public forum indicates that this idea is considered important.
Furthermore, if LeanVM proves successful, Ethereum acquires new technical evidence to maintain scalability without sacrificing decentralization. This has long been considered a major dilemma in the blockchain world.
Vitalik’s call on blockchain milestones and AI
Meanwhile, Ethereum celebrated the milestone this year again. At the end of July, the network celebrated its 10th anniversary and commemorated the launch of a special NFT called Ethereum Torch. The NFT represents the first Ethereum journey since 2015, from one community member to another.
Over 100 global events were held, and the network had a far-reaching impact across finance, digital art and technology.
Additionally, last August, CNF reported that Vitalik also spoke about another topic: Artificial Intelligence. He sought continuous human involvement in the development of AI.
He argued that AI should be considered a “machine” and that humans should act as “rudders” that determine their direction. This statement shows his consistent emphasis on the balance between cutting-edge technology and human control. This also appears to be related to Ethereum’s decentralization principles.
Interestingly, these two seemingly different issues (AI and blockchain) are actually both about control, efficiency and the future of digital systems.
So it’s natural for Vitalik to emphasize that technical breakthroughs like LeanVM are not about reducing costs or speeding up recursion. More than that, he wants to demonstrate that Ethereum still has room for innovation amidst the fierce competition in the crypto world.
Meanwhile, at the time of writing, ETH is $4,294.69a little above 0.02% Over the past 24 hours 9.99% The past 30 days.