Ethereum “Verge” update lets nodes run on phones and smartwatches instead of just computers

The Verge, Ethereum’s forthcoming upgrade, will significantly reduce the hardware requirements, thereby enabling node operations to be accessed on common devices such as smartphones and smartwatches.

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, stated that the network’s forthcoming upgrade, “The Verge,” is intended to enhance the security and accessibility of Ethereum by enabling its nodes to operate on devices as tiny as a “phone or smartwatch.”

The Verge’s objective is to minimize hardware requirements by employing “stateless verification,” which enables nodes to verify blockchain blocks without retaining substantial quantities of data.

The growing data size necessary to operate a node is one of the challenges faced by Ethereum. Paradigm’s research indicates that the current requirement is for “hundreds of gigabytes of state data.”

According to Buterin, stateless verification in The Verge will “make fully verifying the chain so computationally cheap that every mobile wallet, web wallet, and even smart watch does it by default.”

The transition to stateless verification would eliminate the necessity for Ethereum nodes to store the entire blockchain, thereby lowering the technical obstacles for users, including solitary stakeholders.

According to Buterin’s blog post, The Verge’s initial objective was to implement Verkle trees, a cryptographic structure that was intended to facilitate autonomous validation and reduce the size of proof messages.

He acknowledged concern regarding the vulnerability of Verkle trees to quantum computing, stating: “Verkle trees are susceptible to quantum computers; consequently, should we substitute the existing KECCAK Merkle Patricia tree with Verkle trees, further replacements will be necessary.”

Scalable Transparent Arguments of Knowledge (STARK)-based binary hash trees are being considered by developers as a means of improving the long-term outlook for security and scalability in the face of quantum threats.

The Verge also contains proposed modifications to the network’s gas cost mechanism under Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-4762 in anticipation of stateless verification.

The proposed modification would modify gas fees for resource-intensive cryptographic operations to guarantee network scalability and security, while also incorporating what Buterin refers to as “multidimensional gas.”

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