Ethereum
ETH Team Leader Says Most ETH Clients “Very Aggressively” Delete Old Data
Péter Szilágyi, head of the Ethereum team, says many Ethereum clients are “very aggressively” deleting old chain segments, raising questions about the network’s reliance on Geth.
Ethereum software client Geth (also known as Go Ethereum) remains a central point of discussion, with Ethereum team leader Péter Szilágyi raising concerns about the growing reliance on Geth, highlighting the broader implications for data availability and network decentralization.
I wanted to respond directly, but I thought it was an interesting thing to expand on a bit, so here’s a high-level tweet instead.
Bitcoiners always hated us because we redefined what full nodes meant (to us). We didn’t do it for some hidden reason, just the storage model was… https://t.co/e7YotRRFfC
– Péter Szilágyi (karalabe.eth) (@peter_szilagyi) May 27, 2024
In an X post on May 27, Szilágyi addressed the complex dynamics surrounding Ethereum’s storage infrastructure, highlighting the parallels with the controversial debates that have long surrounded Bitcoin’s development.
Szilágyi’s concern focuses on Ethereum’s growing reliance on Geth for data storage, especially as the platform aims to grow. The Ethereum team leader highlighted a divergence among Ethereum clients, with many other than Geth choosing to “aggressively” remove old chain segments, because they “aren’t needed.”
“Most other customers, besides Geth, started very aggressively removing old channel segments, because they were no longer needed. The reasoning is that you can reprocess the chain, so you are doing a “full sync”, but there is no need to keep the data (yes, because Geth keeps it for us, the losers).
Peter Szilagyi
While this strategy may provide short-term benefits in terms of storage optimization, Szilágyi raised deep questions about the long-term resilience and decentralization of the Ethereum network.
He particularly warned of the inherent risks associated with data addiction and the potential consequences of widespread data purging, saying that “data tends to always disappear, never to reappear, so the more people reject something thing, the less likely it is that the rest of the nodes will be lost.” be prepared to store/serve it yourself; and the more difficult it will be to find the few people willing to serve him.
Ethereum Customers | Source: Ethernodes
The Ethereum community has long struggled with concerns about dependence on Ethereum clients.
According to data from Ethernodes, more than 40% of Ethereum clients rely on Geth, including almost 38% on Nethermind, another software client in the Ethereum ecosystem. As a result, the question of Ethereum client dependency was raised. guest large crypto companies like Coinbase are exploring alternative Ethereum execution clients in order to diversify their infrastructure.