Ethereum is at the verge of a major advancement with its Verge upgrade, a key step in its ongoing effort to make the network more efficient, accessible, and secure.
Expected to roll out after the Surge upgrade, the Verge is part of Ethereum’s multi-phase roadmap, including the Merge, Surge, Purge, and Splurge, which are aimed at enhancing scalability and decentralization.
The Verge upgrade is designed to introduce the so-called “stateless verification,” a powerful feature that will allow Ethereum nodes to operate on lightweight devices like smartphones and even smartwatches.
The highly-anticipated upgrade could enable more people to participate in running nodes, ultimately boosting Ethereum’s decentralization and security.
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Reducing hardware barriers with stateless verification
The Verge’s main innovation originally laid on its use of Verkle trees—“a tree structure that allows for much more compact proofs, enabling stateless validation of Ethereum blocks.”
However, in a Wednesday blog post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote: “Today, the Verge represents a much larger vision focused on enabling maximally resource-efficient verification of the Ethereum chain, which includes not just stateless validation technology, but also verifying all Ethereum execution with SNARKs.”
Traditionally, running a full Ethereum node requires storing hundreds of gigabytes of blockchain data, creating a high barrier to entry for individuals without advanced hardware. This is because each node is responsible for verifying and storing Ethereum’s state data—a cumulative record of all transactions and account balances on the network, which continues to grow over time. With stateless verification, nodes will no longer need to store this massive amount of data to participate in the network. Instead, they will be able to verify transactions and blocks without holding the entire blockchain history.
According to Buterin, this approach could make node verification so affordable that even mobile devices could run as blockchain nodes by default. Buterin categorically shared that the Verge will “make fully-verifying the chain so computationally affordable that every mobile wallet, browser wallet, and even smart watch is doing it by default.” This approach promises to make Ethereum’s network more accessible to everyday users.
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The broader impact of the Verge Upgrade
The Verge is a milestone not only in technical advancements but also in decentralization. Reducing the hardware requirements for nodes enables more people to contribute to the security of the network, countering the trend of centralization among powerful node operators. This is especially significant in the blockchain ecosystem as centralization among large nodes can pose security risks, leading to network hacks.
In addition to enhancing security, the Verge opens the door for decentralized applications (dApps) to operate on a broader range of devices. It also provides developers with new opportunities to create applications that work seamlessly on mobile platforms without needing centralized node providers. This could bring about a new era of decentralized services directly accessible to users in real-time, whether on mobile phones, tablets, or smartwatches.
Vitalik Buterin shares concerns about Verkle trees
To implement stateless verification, the Verge will use a cryptographic structure known as Verkle trees. Verkle trees enable much smaller and more efficient data proofs than the current Merkle tree structure. This innovation is essential to reducing storage needs, allowing devices with limited processing power to validate transactions without compromising network security.
With Verkle trees, Ethereum nodes can operate on devices with less storage and computational power, fostering a more inclusive ecosystem.
This change also supports solo stakers, who can run nodes without needing advanced technical setups or relying on third-party services. By making nodes more accessible, Ethereum is moving closer to its goal of a decentralized, scalable, and energy-efficient blockchain.
However, Buterin shared some concerns associated with the introduction of Verkle trees. In the blog post, he raised a question on “whether or not Verkle trees are even the best technology in the first place.” According to him, “Verkle trees are vulnerable to quantum computers, and so if we replace the current KECCAK Merkle Patricia tree with Verkle trees, we will later have to replace the trees again.”
With the Verge upgrade still brewing, Buterin submitted that the Ethereum development team will to have to choose from these three options — Verkle trees, STARK-friendly hash functions, and conservative hash functions.
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Credit: Ndianabasi Tom A crypto journalist and content writer who has been talking about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology since 2018, Ndianabasi is a Writer at Crypto Asset Buyer (CAB).
