Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin introduces a new approach to scaling the network called partially stateless nodes, aiming to address the limitations hindering its growth. In his latest blog post, Buterin outlines this innovative concept for node operation, which promises increased accessibility and reduced costs for users. Existing Ethereum nodes require users to store the entire blockchain, demanding substantial storage (1.3TB for state and 500GB for history). Buterin proposes EIP-4444, a solution that advocates for lighter nodes capable of storing only a portion of data, significantly reducing storage requirements. This shift would make node operation more practical for wider adoption and potentially increase the Ethereum network’s scalability by up to 10-100 times.