Verge will enable nodes on smartphones

Yesterday, Vitalik Buterin stated in a new post that, with the Verge update, it will be possible to run Ethereum nodes even on smartphones and smartwatches.

This post discusses the Verge update, which will enable the possibility of. 

The Verge update of Ethereum and the arrival of blockchain nodes on smartphones

A date has not yet been set for the Ethereum Verge update, also because the developers are still working on it. 

Buterin wrote that originally Verge planned to move Ethereum’s state storage to Verkle trees, to allow stateless validation of Ethereum blocks.

Now, however, Verge represents a much broader vision, focused on enabling the verification of the Ethereum chain with maximum resource efficiency, which includes not only stateless validation technology but also the verification of all Ethereum executions with SNARK.

The Verge has key objectives of making it possible to create stateless clients, to enable full verification and staking nodes without the need for several GB of space, and in the long term, to make verification possible even on smartwatches. 

The verification of transactions

Buterin emphasizes that one of the most powerful things about the blockchain is the fact that anyone can run a node and thus verify the entire and perfect correctness of the whole chain. 

The problem, however, is that, in the current state, a lot of memory is needed to host a node to perform the verifications, and this effectively excludes the possibility that everyone can actually do them. 

In particular, the verification potentially done, and truly, by anyone would make it extremely difficult for any malicious actor to force the approval of incorrect transactions, or to not fully comply with the protocol.

Buterin points out that this is a fundamental difference between blockchain and centralized systems, but it requires that running a fully verifiable node must be actually feasible for a critical mass of people. 

For example, in the current state, many stakers delegate staking to third-party nodes, and thus, even while staking, they do not perform transaction verification. 

Today, running an Ethereum validator node is possible on a consumer laptop, but it remains decidedly difficult. With Verge, this will change, and full chain verification will be made computationally so convenient that in fact every wallet, mobile and desktop, will be able to do it by default.

Among other things, this was also the original idea of Satoshi Nakamoto from 2008. 

Ethereum Verge: The nodes on smartphones and smartwatches

The first goal is to make the complete verification of the blockchain feasible by all wallets, particularly those managed by desktop software or mobile apps. 

This would allow anyone with one of those wallets to personally verify the correctness of the transactions, with almost absolute certainty and above all without having to trust anyone at all. 

A result like this, although difficult, does not seem impossible at all today, even if perhaps for the final release of the Verge update it will be necessary to wait a little longer. 

The discussion becomes more complicated if one imagines wanting to allow all this also for smartwatches, or similar devices. 

This is exactly what is being discussed, namely what the best technical solutions are to make all this possible. 

This is also the reason why it originally only planned to move Ethereum’s state storage to Verkle trees, while now Buterin also talks about using STARK (Scalable Transparent Arguments of Knowledge).

The basic idea is to allow, with stateless verification, the verification of blockchain blocks without having to store large amounts of data.

The impact of the Verge update on gas fees

Verge should also modify the system on which the calculation of the gas cost of transactions is based.

The objective is to reach the point of supporting large quantities of transactions, and therefore verifications, manageable by many different devices, at a reasonable cost for those who perform them. 

The idea is to separate gas costs by usage, while now gas depends only on the weight of the transaction and not on the type of transaction. 

Gas is probably currently the main obstacle to the spread of Ethereum, along with scalability, so much so that the success of layer-2 is precisely due to the fact that they manage to keep gas very low, unlike layer-1. 

Although Buterin has repeatedly emphasized that layer-2s are currently the main solution to Ethereum’s scalability issues, in this case, he is already working on the future evolution where layer-1 could have an even greater role, especially for security matters. 

If the number of transactions manageable by layer-1 were to increase significantly, the fees could also decrease, especially because with the transition to Proof-of-Stake there is no longer a need to highly compensate the validators, as still happens with Bitcoin. 

Ethereum is increasingly becoming a global platform for services, more than just a simple monetary asset, even if this means that on a financial level the role of BTC remains primary over that of ETH.