The ‘Purge’ — Vitalik’s plan to reduce Ethereum’s bloat
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has released the fifth part of his blog series on the blockchain network’s future path titled “The Purge,” which aims to reduce data bloat and simplify Ethereum’s protocol.
The Purge focuses on trimming unnecessary data storage and eliminating outdated features to make Ethereum more efficient while preserving “the permanence” of the blockchain.
The Purge is not set to directly impact Ethereum’s gas fees. However, the proposed changes may enhance network performance and reduce operating costs.
The Purge roadmap showing the plan to simplify the protocol and eliminate technical debt. Source: vitalik.eth
Related: Ethereum nodes on phones, Tether market cap tops $120B: Finance Redefined
Reducing storage for better node operations
A key element of The Purge is to tackle the increasing barrier new nodes face when seeking to join the Ethereum network, increasing storage requirements.
A fully-synced Ethereum node currently requires over 1.17 terabytes (TB) of storage — primarily due to historical data, according to ycharts data .
The Purge also aims to cut client storage requirements “by reducing or removing the need for every node” to permanently store all history.
“[...] and perhaps eventually even state.”
Chart depicting the current data required for full sync on the Ethereum network. Source: ycharts
Related: Ethereum price enters buy zone — Is a revenge rally in the making?
State expiry
Buterin’s post also highlighted the current state of the network, revealing that any new state data created is stored forever, resulting in the state expanding continuously.
“State is much harder to ‘expire’ than history, because the EVM is fundamentally designed around an assumption that once a state object is created, it will always be there and can be read by any transaction at any time.”
Put in layman’s terms, any new data added to the network stays there permanently, causing the system to grow, but Buterin seeks to counter this through “partial state expiry.”
This new idea would involve less frequently accessed state data being expired and revived later via cryptographic proofs when required.
Related: Too early to say Ethereum L2s are ‘cannibalistic’ of revenue: Sygnum Bank
Move toward stateless verification
Buterin’s Purge blog post follows the introduction of The Verge on Oct. 23 , designed to make running a node on the Ethereum network more secure and accessible.
The Verge upgrade aims to decrease hardware requirements for blockchain block verification without storing large amounts of data through “stateless verification.”
This new verification method could “make fully-verifying the chain so computationally affordable that every mobile wallet, browser wallet, and even smart watch” can run a node on the network.
Magazine: The rise of Mert Mumtaz: ‘I probably FUD Solana the most out of anybody’
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
You may also like
Will Bitcoin’s Correction Continue or is it a Good Time to Buy?
US stocks head into holiday week with history on their side
Let’s take a look at how US equities typically perform this time of year and what we might see in the coming days
Cardano implements first ZK smart contract
Share link:In this post: Cardano has deployed its first zero-knowledge smart contract on the mainnet through the use of the Halo 2 zkSNARKs. The technology allows for secure and private verification of computations with the help of the network without disclosing sensitive information. ADA recently crossed the $1 level and went as high as $1.15 before a 17% drop.
Investors Flock to UltraShort Bitcoin ETF as Post-Trump Rally Cools