Researcher Hopes Cosmos-Style 'Checkpoint' Could Fix Ethereum's Data Problem

His new proposal, dubbed "ReGenesis," posted on EthResearch on June 24, would bring stateless client research to the current Ethereum chain by "Nuking" certain nodes' states and swapping them with a math proof on a rolling basis.

Supporting stateless clients - meaning nodes that would carry as little state information as possible to verify transactions - has been a prime objective of Eth 2.0 in order to decrease data strains on Ethereum nodes.

ReGenesis would incorporate some of the Ethereum researchers' insights into the transitionary period, or Eth 1.x.Akhunov's proposal works like a video-game checkpoint.

The proof allows the reborn Ethereum chain to begin again from a sure foundation, but only for certain types of nodes, Akhunov said.

ReGenesis is hardly wandering off the range when it comes to Ethereum philosophy.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin describes similar assumptions found in ReGenesis in a 2014 blog entitled, "Proof of Stake: How I Learned to Love Weak Subjectivity."

Weak subjectivity itself is taken to its logical conclusion with the ongoing research project Stateless Ethereum and PoS. That project hopes to create a method for transactions to be verified based on the transaction hash and a math proof alone in Eth 2.0.

ReGenesis reflects much about Stateless Ethereum and Eth 2.0's unresolved latter steps.

One issue team leader at Ethereum Foundation client Geth Péter Szilágyi pointed out is that ReGenesis does not technically decrease the state.

"Ultimately, it always boils down to what can you afford to delete. If the Ethereum ecosystem permits us to delete old blocks, or old logs, a loooot can be achieved. If not - and Ethereum sold them that nothing gets deleted - we have problems," Szilágyi said.