Vitalik Buterin Suggests Enhancements to Ethereum’s Scaling Approach

Vitalik Buterin has proposed modifications to Ethereum’s scaling strategy, emphasizing the importance of facilitating local node operation while still enhancing Layer 1 (L1) scaling capabilities.

These recommendations arise from worries that increasing the L1 gas limit could complicate the ability of users to run full nodes efficiently.

Partially Stateless Nodes

In a discussion on Ethresear.ch, Buterin states that enabling users to operate their own nodes can coexist with efforts to improve the network’s scalability.

He presented various methods to achieve this goal, introducing a new category referred to as the “partially stateless node.” This structure can validate blocks without retaining all historical data, utilizing either stateless protocols or ZK-EVM to maintain the integrity of the entire blockchain.

“This node model would provide the advantages of direct local access to the relevant state while ensuring the highest levels of privacy when accessing that state,” he explained.

Users will have the option to choose which segments of the state to retain, such as information from commonly accessed accounts or services. Buterin noted that the configuration could even be handled via an on-chain contract, allowing the node to store only the raw data without Merkle branches.

In the near term, Buterin recommends implementing EIP-4444 fully, which minimizes disk space requirements by restricting historical data retention by nodes to roughly 36 days. He also suggests developing a decentralized history storage system where nodes conserve portions of older data, managed through erasure coding to avoid dependence on centralized storage solutions.

Another proposal includes adjusting gas prices, making storage operations more expensive while reducing execution costs. This would promote efficient utilization of the network. In the medium term, he highlights stateless verification as a means to further decrease node storage requirements by removing the necessity of retaining state Merkle branches.

The Limitations of Other Solutions

The discussion highlights a prevalent issue that raising the L1 gas limit could hinder users’ ability to maintain full nodes due to increased resource demands.

Buterin elaborates that although the primary reason for operating a full node has been to validate the blockchain, these nodes can also serve an additional, crucial function. This includes facilitating a local RPC server that allows for trustless, censorship-resistant, and privacy-centric access to on-chain data.

While innovations like ZK-EVMs and private information retrieval (PIR) present appealing trustless options, Buterin notes several drawbacks. These limitations encompass the high expense of fully cryptographic solutions, concerns regarding metadata privacy, and risks of censorship from centralized RPC providers.