Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has identified the network’s modular exponentiation (modexp) precompile as a major hurdle hindering Ethereum’s scalability within its zero-knowledge (ZK) ecosystem. His recent Twitter post highlights modexp’s significant computational complexity, estimating it to be up to 50 times more demanding than an average block. He proposes replacing the precompile with computationally equivalent EVM code through an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP), even if this incurs higher gas costs. Buterin emphasizes that while few applications rely on modexp, its inefficiency poses a significant challenge to ZK-based scaling solutions such as ZK-rollups and ZK-EVMs.