Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined a comprehensive strategy for addressing Ethereum’s limitations in processing transactions, aiming to increase scalability through higher gas limits. The plan includes a novel concept called stateless nodes designed to reduce network storage requirements without hindering full node operation. Buterin highlights the importance of running full nodes for their role as secure, censorship-resistant, and confidential gateways to the blockchain. To achieve this, he proposes short-term solutions such as implementing EIP-4444, which limits historical data storage to only the past 36 days, thereby reducing disk space demands. The long-term strategy involves creating a distributed solution for historical data management and adjusting gas prices to incentivize users to pay more for storing data and less for executing transactions. Buterin’s roadmap also explores the potential of stateless nodes as a medium-term solution that could allow nodes to interact with the blockchain without maintaining Merkle branches for data integrity checks, leading to a significant reduction in storage needs (up to 50%). This approach would enable nodes to handle transactions more efficiently. This innovative proposal holds promise for improving Ethereum’s scalability and user experience.