StarkWare, an organization specializing in zero-knowledge (ZK) expertise, a method of verifying data with out revealing the precise contents of that data, mentioned it created a ZK verification of the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain that may run on cell gadgets.
The proof accommodates all of the Bitcoin block headers from the genesis block till the current, however not the complete and detailed Bitcoin blockchain historical past, which is over 680 gigabytes in measurement.
Every block header consists of the model variety of the Bitcoin software program used to mine the block, a reference to the earlier block within the chain, a timestamp, the block measurement and the nonce — the random quantity the miner has to search out so as to add the block to the ledger.
StarkWare’s BTC ledger proof is available in at simply 1 megabyte (MB) in measurement, to offer customers with a method of verifying transactions in underneath 100 milliseconds, Abdelhamid Bakhta, head of ecosystem at StarkWare, instructed Cointelegraph.
The light-weight shopper builds on Simplified Fee Verification (SPV), an idea outlined in Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper, which permits smaller light-weight nodes a method of verifying funds with out having to obtain the complete ledger.
StarkWare’s announcement is important in that it’s going to permit any person to confirm Bitcoin funds with out organising a full Bitcoin node, which might price between $300 to $1,000, and could also be too technically complicated for the typical person to correctly set up.
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Node storage necessities and ledger measurement develop into factors of rivalry within the BTC neighborhood
The necessities to run a Bitcoin node are comparatively simpler than these of different blockchain networks, which can require tens of hundreds of {dollars} to run.
Bitcoin nodes can run on retail private computer systems because of the relative simplicity of the Bitcoin protocol, which has generated solely 680 gigabytes of knowledge since 2009.
This relative simplicity and accessible {hardware} necessities are key to preserving decentralization of the protocol and sustaining Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism, which is enforced by impartial node runners.
If nodes develop into too costly due to mounting {hardware} necessities, the community turns into centralized underneath massive service suppliers with the sources to run the required {hardware}, going towards Bitcoin’s core worth proposition.
Inscriptions, ordinals, and different types of non-monetary knowledge storage on the blockchain create this centralization threat by growing the dimensions of the ledger and requiring node operators to retailer vital quantities of non-monetary knowledge, critics say.
In Might, Bitcoin Core, the builders of the software program utilized by about 80% of BTC node runners, introduced that the upcoming Bitcoin Core 30 replace, slated for launch in October, will take away the OP_Return restrict, which caps the quantity of non-monetary knowledge that may be embedded in Bitcoin transactions.
The OP_Return restrict is at present 80 bytes, far too small to retailer the vast majority of pictures and multimedia content material immediately, and the proposed change has prompted a historic surge in customers operating Bitcoin Knots nodes.
Bitcoin Knots is another Bitcoin node software program and options extra customizable parameters, together with choices for the node runners to restrict the quantity of OP_Return knowledge they’ll retailer of their reminiscence swimming pools and relay to different nodes.
Knots nodes now account for practically 20% of the community in 2025 — an nearly vertical enhance from the top of 2024, when Knots nodes accounted for about 1% of the overall market share.
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