- The Ethereum state keeps expanding, and higher storage demands strain node operators.
- Scaling upgrades boost activity, but they also speed state growth across the network.
- State expiry archive design and partial statelessness aim to keep nodes accessible.
Ethereum faces a growing technical risk that does not appear in gas fees or transaction speed metrics. Researchers warn that the network’s expanding state now threatens long-term decentralization. The Ethereum Foundation’s Stateless Consensus researchers said Ethereum’s state grows continuously and never shrinks. As a result, node operation becomes harder, more expensive, and less accessible over time.
The Foundation described Ethereum as a global infrastructure that settles billions of dollars in value. It also coordinates thousands of applications that depend on reliable and decentralized state access. As storage demands rise, fewer participants can afford to run full nodes. This shift risks concentrating control among large infrastructure providers.
Why Ethereum’s State Keeps Growing
Ethereum’s state includes account balances, smart contract code, and contract storage. Every interaction adds new data that nodes must retain and serve. Foundation researchers said the state only expands. It never removes old data by default. This design choice now creates long-term strain on node operators.
The Ethereum Foundation warned that an oversized state makes the network fragile. It increases operating costs and raises barriers for independent node operators. Scaling upgrades increased activity across the network. Layer 2 expansion, gas limit increases, and EIP-4844 enabled more transactions. Yet these improvements also accelerate state growth. More usage produces more stored data that every node must manage.
Centralization Risks From State Bloat
As node requirements rise, smaller operators struggle to keep up. Over time, only well-funded actors can store and serve the full state. The Foundation cautioned that this outcome weakens resistance to censorship and network neutrality. Fewer operators mean fewer independent verification points.
Researchers cited partial safeguards such as FOCIL and VOPS. These mechanisms aim to preserve censorship resistance under specialized block production. Still, the Foundation said its success depends on accessible state storage. Nodes must store and serve state without prohibitive cost.
Without that balance, syncing nodes becomes harder. Outages or external pressure could disrupt access to critical state data.
Three Proposals to Reduce Node Burden
To address state bloat, the Foundation proposed State Expiry, State Archive, and Partial Statelessness. Each proposal targets a different pressure point. State expiry would prune inactive data from the active state. Nodes would no longer store rarely used data by default.
Expired data would remain recoverable through cryptographic proofs. This approach could reduce routine storage needs across the network. State Archive introduces a separation model. Dedicated archive nodes would store historical state, while standard nodes operate with smaller datasets.
Related: Ethereum Bear Breakdown Risk Grows Despite Accumulation
Partial statelessness focuses on validation without full state storage. Validators could verify blocks using proofs rather than local state copies. However, researchers warned that this shifts storage responsibility. Block builders, RPC providers, MEV searchers, and explorers would hold most state.
This scenario leads to new doubts about the system’s resilience and its ability to resist censorship. The team raised the issue of syncing and outages as possible risks associated with such a model. The Foundation said that these concepts are still at the research stage. It is expected that developers will conduct comprehensive testing and community feedback before implementing any changes to the protocol.
Researchers emphasized that allowing participants without restrictions is still a primary objective. The suggestions intend to maintain decentralization while contributing to Ethereum’s growth.
