Vitalik Buterin shares the next steps for the Ethereum Purge.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin shared the next steps of protocol simplification and node resource load reduction, known as cleanup.

Cleanup is a key step in Ethereum's transition that involves removing old and redundant network history and simplifying the network over time.

In addition to reducing historical data storage, this step also significantly reduces hard disk requirements for node operators and the technical debt of the Ethereum protocol.

Buterin introduced the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-6780 during the Denkun hard fork, eliminating most of the functions of the “SELFDESTRUCT” code, simplifying the protocol by removing complexity and adding new security guarantees.

Buterin, after the implementation of EIP-6780, each Ethereum block will have a large number of storage spaces due to the clearing of certain SELFDESTRUCT functions. Buterin hopes that a new EIP will completely eliminate the SELFDESTRUCT code in the future.

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The cleanup introduces a history timeout via EIP-4444 to limit the amount of history data stored. As a result, nodes will have the option of truncating historical blocks older than one year.

The historical data is only required when a peer matches the head of the chain or is requested separately.

Therefore, when hot blocks are verified, a fully synchronized node does not need more than 365 days of historical data.

Buterin said that EIP-4444 could significantly increase the decentralization of the Ethereum node.

“Perhaps, if each node stores a small percentage of the history by default, we could have roughly every specific piece of history stored on the network as it is today.”

Ethereum founder Gate recently shared thousands of lines of code dropping support for pre-merger (PoW) networks.

He added that the post-Denkun 18-day storage window for blobs will reduce the bandwidth of the node's data to 50 gigabytes.

Buterin also discussed the importance of clearing precompiled Ethereum contracts. Precompiled contracts are used to implement complex cryptographic forms that cannot be implemented by the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

However, in recent times, demand for the contract function has declined and “it has become a key source of communication errors and a major source of pain for new EVM implementations,” Buterin said.

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