Vitalik Buterin’s initiative, known as “The Purge,” is aimed at streamlining Ethereum by reducing data bloat, simplifying the protocol, and addressing technical debt to enhance efficiency.
The fifth installment of Buterin’s blog series, The Purge, focuses on trimming unnecessary data storage and eliminating outdated features, with the goal of making Ethereum more efficient while maintaining the blockchain’s permanence.
One key aspect of The Purge is to reduce the barrier for new nodes joining the Ethereum network by cutting client storage requirements. Currently, a fully-synced Ethereum node needs over 1.17 terabytes of storage due to historical data.
Buterin discusses the possibility of reducing or eliminating the need for nodes to store all history permanently, and even state data in the future, to enhance node operations.
The initiative also addresses the continuous expansion of the network state by introducing the concept of partial state expiry. This approach aims to expire less frequently accessed state data and revive it later using cryptographic proofs when necessary.
Furthermore, Buterin’s post introduces The Verge upgrade, designed to make running an Ethereum node more secure and accessible through stateless verification. This method could potentially reduce hardware requirements for block verification, making it computationally affordable for a wider range of devices to run nodes on the network.
