Vitalik Buterin Proposes Solution to Boost Gas Limit by 10–100x

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a new concept centered on “partial stateless nodes.” According to Buterin, the approach could significantly improve L1 scalability, potentially increasing the gas limit by 10–100x. 

Under this model, the network would retain only critical state data, while delegating the full blockchain history to external storage solutions.

EIP-4444 and Near-Term Priorities

Currently, running a full Ethereum node requires over 1 TB of disk space for state data and around 500 GB for historical data, posing a significant barrier to entry for most users. Vitalik Buterin has proposed the implementation of EIP-4444 as part of the final phase of the London upgrade. Once adopted, nodes would store no more than 36 days of historical data, freeing up hundreds of gigabytes in storage.

At the same time, plans are underway to develop a distributed storage system for historical data, using specialized encoding to preserve blockchain history without centralization.

Additionally, Buterin recommends rethinking the current gas pricing model, making storage more expensive while lowering execution costs. This includes raising fees for operations like SSTORE for new storage slots, contract code deployment, and account creation.

Related: Ethereum Foundation’s New Security Initiative Targets Mass Adoption

Partial Stateless Nodes and Mid-Term Priorities

In the medium term, Vitalik Buterin aims to implement stateless verification, enabling nodes to validate blocks without storing all Merkle branches. This approach would cut disk space requirements roughly in half.

The most common criticism of increasing the L1 gas limit, beyond concerns about network safety, is that it makes it harder to run a full node,

Buterin wrote on Ethereum Research.

The concept involves a configurable setup where node operators can specify which data should be continuously updated. For example, a node could be configured to store only token balances, NFTs, or accounts tied to active users. Any request beyond that scope would either return an error or be processed through external cryptographic services, depending on the operator’s preference.

Related: Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum Should Be as Simple as Bitcoin

According to Buterin’s projections, partial stateless nodes could increase the gas limit by 10–100x while maintaining the ability to run fully functional, private, and secure independent nodes.

Long-Term Vision

In his blog post, Buterin emphasized that fully autonomous nodes running on consumer-grade hardware, including mobile devices, may still be years away. However, eliminating the need to store the full global state would greatly simplify node synchronization and reduce the complexity of software updates.

This vision aligns with Ethereum’s broader roadmap, which includes the implementation of ZK-proofs and PIR technologies to enhance privacy. Ultimately, users would gain easier access to tools for running their nodes without relying on large-scale RPC providers.

Related: How the Ethereum Foundation Is Shaping the Future of Crypto