Stateless Blockchains: The Future, or Just a Mirage? In an article released today
by a16zcrypto, researchers
Miranda Christ and Joseph Bonneau shed light on the intricate challenges of implementing stateless blockchains. Their extensive research delves
deep into the complexities of the topic, offering a fresh perspective that promises
to shape forthcoming debates in blockchain technology.
In this article, we explore their research on the growth of blockchain states,
the challenges of stateless blockchains, and emerging solutions.
Blockchains have been evolving at an unprecedented pace. With the surge in user volume and transaction frequency,
the amount of data or 'state' that validators must store to authenticate transactions also increases.
While Bitcoin's state is limited to unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs), Ethereum's state includes each account's balance and the code and storage for each smart contract. But is the growing size of blockchain states sustainable.
