Understanding Ethereum precompiled contracts
Precompiled contracts are like a car lease. The current precompiled contracts are adequate today but in the future they will become worn out. Worn out in the sense that the current cryptographic functions will become outdated and vulnerable to attack. So in the future, they will be updated with more powerful and modern cryptographic functions. Given that the opcodes are finite and the EVM requirements are dynamic, it would not make sense to hard code today's precompiled contracts as a static opcode.
Current Ethereum Virtual Machine Opcodes (129 total):
Arithmetic, logical, cryptographic, environmental, block, stack/mem/storage/flow, push, duplication, exchange, logging, system
Current Ethereum Virtual Machine Precompiled Contracts (4 total):
ECREC, SHA-256, RIPEMD-160, Identity function
