Vitalik Buterin on Ethereum centralization fix – make it easier to run nodes

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says node centralization is one of Ethereum's biggest challenges, but that the perfect solution might not come for another 20 years.

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Node centralization is one of the biggest problems facing the Ethereum network and should be solved by making it cheaper and easier to operate nodes, according to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.< /p>

Currently, the majority of the 5,901 active Ethereum nodes are managed by centralized web providers like Amazon Web Services, which many experts believe leaves the Ethereum blockchain exposed to a centralized point of failure.

Web Service Provider Ethereum Node Distribution . Source: Ethernodes

Speaking at Korea Blockchain Week, Buterin outlined six key issues that need to be addressed to solve centralization, but pointed out that the nodes problem is a “ big piece of the puzzle” to secure Ethereum. the network remains decentralized in the long term.

"One of those six things is to make it technically easier for users to run nodes, and statelessness is one of the really important technologies to do that," he explained.

“Today it takes hundreds of gigabytes of data to run a node. With stateless clients, you can run a node with virtually zero. »

The concept of statelessness refers to the removal of the reliance on centralized service providers to verify activity on the network. According to the Ethereum Foundation, true decentralization is not possible until node operators can run Ethereum on modest, inexpensive hardware.

As Buterin noted, statelessness forms a key part of Ethereum's roadmap, with major steps towards statelessness being achieved in 'The Verge' and 'The Purge' stages:< /p>

“Longer term plans are to maintain fully verified Ethereum nodes where you can literally use them on your phone. »

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