Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared the next steps known as Purge, which aim to simplify the protocol and reduce the resource load on nodes. Purge is described as a critical phase in Ethereum‘s transition, involving the removal of old and redundant network history and simplifying the network over time. This phase not only reduces past data storage but also significantly decreases the hard disk requirements for node operators and the technical debt of the Ethereum protocol.
What’s Happening in the Ethereum Ecosystem?
Buterin mentioned that during the Dencun hard fork upgrade, the introduction of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-6780 eliminated most SELFDESTRUCT code functions, which simplified the protocol by removing complexity and adding new security guarantees.
Buterin said that after the implementation of EIP-6780, each Ethereum block will have a larger number of storage slots due to the cleanup of certain SELFDESTRUCT functions. Buterin hopes that a new EIP will completely remove the SELFDESTRUCT code in the future.
Purge will facilitate the expiration of history through EIP-4444 to limit the amount of stored past data. As a result, nodes will have the option to prune blocks that are more than a year old.
Past data will only be necessary when a peer needs to synchronize with the chain head or when specifically requested, so a fully synchronized node will not need access to past data older than 365 days when new blocks are confirmed.
Striking Statements from Buterin
Regarding the matter, Vitalik Buterin said that EIP-4444 could greatly increase the decentralization of Ethereum’s nodes and made the following statement:
“Potentially, if every node by default stores small percentages of the past, we could have roughly as many copies of each specific piece of history stored on the network as we do today.”
The Ethereum co-founder also shared that Geth recently removed support for pre-Merge (PoW) networks, deleting thousands of lines of code. He added that a post-Dencun storage window of 18 days for blobs would reduce node data bandwidth to 50 gigabytes.
Buterin also discussed the need to liquidate precompiled Ethereum contracts. Precompiled contracts are used to implement complex cryptographic forms that cannot be executed by the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). According to Buterin, however, the demand for contract functionality has decreased recently, and these contracts have become a primary source of errors and a major pain point for new EVM implementations.
