# Verkle trees links ## What Better structure to store the Ethereum state, in ways that make for smaller proofs than the status quo of Merkle trees * [Ideal vector commitment](https://ethresear.ch/t/open-problem-ideal-vector-commitment/7421) - Vitalik Buterin, May 2020 * Verkle trees are a strong contender, [albeit not perfect](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/rwojtk/ama_we_are_the_efs_research_team_pt_7_07_january/hrohfim/?context=5) * [Verkle trees paper](https://math.mit.edu/research/highschool/primes/materials/2018/Kuszmaul.pdf) - John Kusmaul, 2018 * [Devcon talk about Verkle trees](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7rStTKwuYs) *** * [Verkle trie for Eth1 state](https://dankradfeist.de/ethereum/2021/06/18/verkle-trie-for-eth1.html) - Dankrad Feist, June 2021 * [Verkle trees explainer](https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/06/18/verkle.html) - Vitalik Buterin, June 2021 * [Verkle tree structure](https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/12/02/verkle-tree-structure) - Guillaume Ballet and Dankrad Feist, December 2021 Also allows for state expiry by separating old state into periods, requiring small proofs to "bring it back to life" - normal nodes will only have to hold the latest period or two ## Why Allow for the full verification of execution layer blocks without requiring knowing the entire state * Statelessness: Bridge [the client gap](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/ryk3it/my_first_impressions_of_web3/hrrz15r/) with [stateless clients](https://docs.ethhub.io/ethereum-roadmap/ethereum-2.0/stateless-clients/) * Stateless clients are estimated at [~500 kB per block in bandwidth with full security](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/o9s15i/impromptu_technical_ama_on_statelessness_and/h3da98p/?context=3) * Present-day Ethereum is impractical for stateless clients due to large Merkle tree proof sizes ## How * [Verkle tree integration](https://notes.ethereum.org/@vbuterin/verkle_tree_eip) * [State expiry and statelessness roadmap](https://notes.ethereum.org/@vbuterin/verkle_and_state_expiry_proposal) * [Proposed Verkle tree scheme](https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/proposed-verkle-tree-scheme-for-ethereum-state/5805) *** * [Go implementation of verkle trees](https://github.com/gballet/go-verkle) * [Condrieu testnet demo with verkle trees](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPLHFBeC0Vg) * [Latest of Verkle trees](https://notes.ethereum.org/@gballet/verkle-testnet-updates) - Guillaume Ballet ## Who * Guillaume Ballet (@gballet) ## More links * [Vitalik's Impromptu technical AMA about Verkle trees](https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/o9s15i/impromptu_technical_ama_on_statelessness_and/) (and other stuff) - June 2021 * [PEEPanEIP #46 - Verkle tries](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGJOQHzg3UQ) - September 2021