Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has highlighted the potential benefits of Verkle trees for Ethereum solo stakers and network nodes. In a recent post, Buterin explained that Verkle trees could enable “stateless validator clients,” allowing staking nodes to operate with minimal hard disk space and achieve near-instant synchronization.
Verkle trees are a key component of Ethereum’s development roadmap, which Buterin shared in 2022. The roadmap consists of five phases: Merge, Surge, Verge, Purge, and Splurge, each representing different milestones in Ethereum’s progress. Verkle trees fall under the Verge phase, which focuses on optimizing data storage and node size.
Similar to Merkle trees, Verkle trees use tree-like structures but with a significant difference. They employ a specific type of hash called a vector commitment, which is passed to sub-nodes. This approach allows for smaller proof sizes and enables nodes to verify blocks using only the data contained within the block itself.
The main advantage of Verkle trees is their contribution to achieving statelessness in Ethereum. This means that nodes verifying blocks would no longer need to store Ethereum’s state. By reducing proof sizes, Verkle trees can be accommodated within each block of the Ethereum blockchain, making it easier for nodes to verify blocks and reducing hardware requirements.
The implementation of Verkle trees will bring forth various benefits, including lower hardware requirements for running Ethereum nodes, which is expected to enhance network decentralization. Additionally, new nodes will be able to join the network almost instantly and sync quickly.
However, the development of Verkle trees is still ongoing, and implementing them in the Ethereum protocol will necessitate several changes. These include introducing a new data structure to save the network’s state, a new gas accounting model, a strategy for migrating from Merkle to Verkle trees, new cryptography primitives, and new fields at the block level.
In conclusion, Verkle trees have the potential to revolutionize Ethereum by improving its scalability, storage efficiency, and decentralization. While their implementation requires significant changes to the protocol, the long-term benefits they offer to the Ethereum network make them a crucial aspect of its future development.