Vitalik Buterin Shares Take on Verkle Trees Coming to Ethereum
According to the presentation made by Vitalik Buterin, Merkle trees were not designed to be compatible with ZK technology. However, he noted that Verkle trees with a vector element are designed to help achieve this goal ultimately
Discussions about Ethereum (ETH) and its data storage for optimal functionality have reached crypto X, where Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic and Vitalik Buterin are debating the possibilities. The conversation began when Bjelic posted a question asking if developers are certain it is right to switch Ethereum to Verkle trees, given that its zk-fication is quite likely.
Vitalik Buterin waded into the conversation, stating, "ZK-ifying keccak merkle patricia trees with worst case 300 MB witness sizes is a non-starter." Notably, the Merkle Patricia trees form the current or primary data structure that is being used within the Ethereum blockchain. This data storage structure has its limitations, and the plan soon is to replace it with Verkle trees with shorter proofs and increased bandwidth.
In response to Bjelic, the current structure, according to the capacity of Polygon zkEVM, can handle the 300 MB benchmark noted by Buterin. The Polygon founder noted that the protocol could even do this easily with a total block time of 12 seconds. He, however, acknowledged that for this to work, it would need approximately 10 server-class CPUs.
Vitalik Buterin's lasting solution
According to the presentation made by Vitalik Buterin, Merkle trees were not designed to be compatible with ZK technology. However, he noted that Verkle trees with a vector element are designed to help achieve this goal ultimately.
