Vitalik Buterin announces next step in simplifying Ethereum protocol, ushers in the Purge

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared the next steps in improving the Ether blockchain. Buterin focuses on reducing the resource load on the blockchain and simplifying the Ethereum protocol. 

ETH price lost 3% on Monday, trading at $3,556. 

Ethereum prepares for the next stage of protocol improvement: The Purge

Vitalik Buterin shared the steps for improving the Ethereum blockchain, known as the Purge. After the Merge, this is the next milestone in Ethereum’s improvement and it is focused on the removal of history (excess network history) over a period of time. 

Historical data storage increases the hard disk requirement for node operators. Reducing this history would reduce the technical debt of the Ethereum protocol. 

The Purge from Ethereum’s roadmap. 

The Merge laid the foundation for the Purge by executing the EIP-6780, an Ethereum Improvement Proposal that eliminated most of the Self Destruct functions. The Merge, therefore, reduced the burden of the Purge, and the protocol can now limit the costs of network participation, following the simplification track. 

A historical block would mean a block older than a year, and nodes would have the option to choose not to store the historical data. Buterin believes this move will not affect the historical data and its storage since even if each node agrees to store only a small percentage of it, there may still be several copies of old transaction data across the network. 

Buterin highlighted the need to remove precompile Ethereum contracts, used to implement cryptography that is not compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This is another task included in the Purge. 

Ethereum price is down 3% on the day. The altcoin yielded nearly 3% gains for holders last week as anticipation surrounding Spot Ethereum ETF approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) increased among traders.