Vitalik Buterin Outlined Future Plans for Ethereum

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined future plans for the Ethereum network to simplify its protocol and reduce the resources required by nodes, an initiative referred to as the Purge.

The Purge represents an essential phase in Ethereum's evolution, focusing on eliminating outdated and unnecessary network history to streamline the network progressively.

This phase not only aims to cut down on the storage of historical data but also significantly reduces the hard disk space needed by node operators and minimizes the Ethereum protocol's technical complexities.

Buterin highlighted that the implementation of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-6780 with the Dencun hard fork has substantially reduced the “SELFDESTRUCT” code functions.

This reduction has not only simplified the protocol by cutting down on its complexity but also enhanced security measures.

Following the implementation of EIP-6780, Buterin pointed out that Ethereum blocks would support a larger number of storage slots, thanks to the removal of certain SELFDESTRUCT functionalities.

He expressed his desire for a future EIP to completely do away with the SELFDESTRUCT code.

Furthermore, the Purge will incorporate history expiration through EIP-4444, which will limit the storage of old data.

Consequently, nodes will have the capability to discard historical blocks older than a year.

This means that historical data will be necessary only when syncing with the chain's head or upon specific requests.

In essence, a node that is fully synchronized will not need to access historical data older than 365 days once new blocks are verified.

Buterin believes that EIP-4444 could significantly promote the decentralization of Ethereum nodes, suggesting that if nodes store only small portions of history by default, the network could maintain a similar distribution of historical data as it currently does.

Buterin also mentioned that Geth has recently eliminated thousands of lines of code by ceasing support for networks operating on proof-of-work (PoW) prior to the Merge.

Post-Dencun adjustments will see an 18-day storage period for blobs, which is expected to lower the data bandwidth required by nodes to 50 gigabytes.

Lastly, Buterin discussed the necessity of removing precompile Ethereum contracts.

These contracts, which facilitate complex cryptographic functions beyond the Ethereum Virtual Machine's (EVM) capabilities, have seen diminished use and have become a major source of consensus errors and challenges for new EVM implementations.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/vitalik-buterin-next-steps-ethereum-purge

https://notes.ethereum.org/@vbuterin/purge_2024_03_31

https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1741190496934867305?s=20