Vitalik Buterin Proposes Updates to Ethereum’s Scaling Strategy

Vitalik Buterin has suggested changes to Ethereum’s scaling plan that focus on making it easier to run local nodes while still supporting Layer 1 (L1) scaling.

His proposals come in response to concerns that raising the L1 gas limit could make it more difficult for users to run full nodes.

Partially Stateless Nodes

In a post on Ethresear.ch, the Ethereum co-founder argues that maintaining the ability for users to function their own nodes can be achieved while continuing to expand the network’s scalability.

He outlined several solutions to allow for this. To support local node operation, he introduced a new type called the “partially stateless node.” This design checks blocks without needing to store all past data and keeps the full chain verified using either stateless methods or ZK-EVM.

“This type of node would give the benefits of direct local access to the state that a user needs to care about, as well as maximal full privacy of access to that state,” he said.

Users can also customize which parts of the state to save, such as data from frequently accessed accounts or applications. Buterin said that this configuration could even be managed by an on-chain contract, with the node saving only raw values and not Merkle branches.

In the short term, the Ethereum co-founder suggests the full rollout of EIP-4444, which reduces disk space needs by limiting historical data stored by nodes to about 36 days. He also calls for the creation of a distributed history storage system where nodes store fragments of older data. This would be maintained through erasure coding and would avoid reliance on centralized storage providers.

Another change involves modifying gas costs to make storage operations more expensive and execution less costly. This encourages efficient use of the network. In the medium term, Buterin pointed to stateless verification as a way to reduce node storage needs further by removing the need to store state Merkle branches.

The Limitations of Other Solutions

The article addresses a common concern that increasing the L1 gas limit could make it harder for users to operate full nodes due to growing resource demands.

The 31-year-old also explains that while validating the blockchain has traditionally been the main reason to run a full node, there is another important way they can be used. This includes operating a local RPC server for trustless, censorship-resistant, and privacy-friendly access to on-chain data.

Although technologies such as ZK-EVMs and private information retrieval (PIR) offer promising trustless alternatives, Buterin points out several limitations. These include the high cost of fully cryptographic solutions, risks to metadata privacy, and censorship threats from centralized RPC providers.