Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, published a proposal titled “A local-node-favoring delta to the scaling roadmap” on ethresear.ch, outlining strategies to enhance Ethereum Layer 1 (L1) scaling while preserving accessibility for users running local nodes. The proposal addresses the tension between increasing L1 transaction capacity and maintaining decentralization, emphasizing the importance of enabling individuals to operate nodes for trustless, censorship-resistant access to the blockchain.
Buterin introduces a new node type, “partially stateless nodes,” designed to verify blocks statelessly and validate the entire chain (via stateless validation or ZK-EVM) while only maintaining a user-selected subset of the blockchain state (e.g., data for specific accounts, DeFi apps, or tokens like ETH or stablecoins). These nodes reduce storage demands by up to 50%, as users only store relevant data without needing full Merkle proofs or the entire blockchain history. Queries outside the stored subset can fail or be routed to external cryptographic solutions via an on-chain contract.
This approach enhances privacy and reduces reliance on centralized Remote Procedure Call (RPC) providers, which Buterin warns could face censorship pressures. Buterin emphasizes accelerating the implementation of EIP-4444, which limits nodes to storing approximately 36 days of historical data, significantly reducing disk space requirements. Long-term data would be stored in a distributed network using erasure coding to ensure robustness without burdening individual nodes.
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This addresses the primary barrier to node operation, as storage needs currently deter many users from running nodes. A decentralized storage solution using erasure coding is proposed to maintain long-term blockchain data. Each node would store only a small fraction of historical data older than 36 days, ensuring permanence without relying on centralized providers.
Gas Pricing Adjustments
Buterin suggests modifying gas pricing to make storage-intensive operations more expensive while reducing costs for execution. This incentivizes efficient state management and supports higher L1 gas limits (potentially 10-100x increases) without overwhelming node operators. Increasing the L1 gas limit to boost throughput risks centralization, as it raises hardware and storage requirements, making it harder for individuals to run full nodes. Buterin’s proposal counters this by optimizing node efficiency.
Local nodes are critical for decentralization, privacy, and censorship resistance. A market dominated by a few RPC providers could lead to deplatforming or censorship, as some already exclude entire countries. The proposal addresses concerns that higher gas limits make full node operation inaccessible, ensuring Ethereum remains user-friendly even as it scales to meet demands from DeFi, NFTs, and on-chain gaming.
The changes could enable Ethereum to handle significantly higher transaction volumes (10-100x) while keeping node operation feasible for individuals. By reducing storage and resource demands, the proposal strengthens Ethereum’s decentralized ethos, making it easier for retail users to participate in validation and staking.
News of the proposal coincided with a 2.3% ETH price increase on May 19th, 2025, with trading volume spiking 15% on exchanges like Kraken, reflecting community optimism about Ethereum’s scalability roadmap. Increasing L1 gas limits raises concerns about centralization risks due to higher hardware requirements for validators. Buterin acknowledges the need to balance these trade-offs.
The proposal complements, rather than replaces, advanced cryptographic solutions like ZK-EVMs, aiming for a scalable, privacy-preserving network. Vitalik Buterin’s proposal introduces innovative solutions like partially stateless nodes, EIP-4444 prioritization, distributed storage, and gas pricing adjustments to make Ethereum L1 scaling more inclusive for local node runners. By addressing storage and accessibility barriers, the plan aims to boost Ethereum’s throughput while preserving its decentralized and censorship-resistant principles, reinforcing its position as a leading blockchain platform.