The majority of 4,653 active Ethereum nodes today operate through centralized web providers such as Amazon Web Services.
Ethereum, on the other hand, is a few weeks away from officially moving from the current Proof of Work (PoW) mining to the Proof of Stake (PoS) mining consensus. Officially called Merge, the upgrade is scheduled to take place on September 15. Towards Merge, Ethereum node centralization has become a hot topic.
Developers Explain Node Concern Before Ethereum Merge
Ethereum developer Péter Szilágyi addressed growing centralization concerns and claimed that they have been aiming to prune the database since Devcon IV. “Truncation” is the term that refers to shrinking the size of the blockchain to a point where developers can create a reliable record of a certain size.
We've been saying it since Devcon IV. Either the state gets pruned, or you will end up with nobody running home nodes.
Everyone went crazy at the thought of state rent. Alexey almost got crucified for researching it. Well, now you're seeing the effect of no pruning.
¯_(ツ)_/¯ https://t.co/SkmD2Q39wE
— Péter Szilágyi (karalabe.eth) (@peter_szilagyi) August 26, 2022
Szilágyi added that the idea received heavy backlash at the time and the current centralization of nodes was a direct result of this. He explained that for people to run their own nodes, Ethereum needs to be a fixed size.
Szilágyi said on the subject:
“Ethereum status needs to be ‘stable’ in size. This way it can run forever. The fixed can be pushed up if needed like the block gas limit, but it should not grow indefinitely. There is no light at the end of the tunnel until this is resolved.”
He noted that efforts have been made by several parties to resolve the issue, but meanwhile the common public should not be blamed for “not wanting to maintain an even greater “infrastructure” to run a node.
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