Individual stake holders and node operators on the Ethereum network expect significant benefits from the upcoming implementation of Werkle trees, confirmed Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the blockchain.
"I'm looking forward to the Werkle trees. They will allow validator clients to function in stateless mode. This will make it possible for the staking nodes to work with almost zero use of hard disk space and almost instant synchronization with the blockchain," the developer noted.
Werkle trees are a data structuring algorithm similar to Merkle trees. Their key difference is that each node uses a special type of hash, known as a vector commitment, to commit child nodes.
This solution optimizes the storage of on-chain information and the volume of nodes, which, according to Buterin, will lead to "much more size-efficient proofs." The mechanism makes it possible to check any block using only the data contained in it.
This approach significantly reduces the technical requirements for validators, which in the long term can lead to an increase in the diversity of nodes and an increase in network decentralization.
The integration of the new data structure is included in the Ethereum development roadmap and is planned for the third stage, which is called The Verge.
The Ethereum co-founder stressed that this update will also improve the solo staking experience by optimizing the user interface and adding new functionality to the client software.
Earlier, the developers of the blockchain approved the date of deployment of Dencun (Deneb-Cancun) on the mainnet on March 13. One of the main components of the update is EIP-4844, which includes the Proto-Danksharding option designed to scale the network.
Recall that on February 7, the Ethereum team successfully implemented Dencun in the Holesky test network.
