Stellar (XLM) Introduces State Archival to Combat Blockchain State Bloat

The
Stellar
Development
Foundation
has
unveiled
its
innovative
solution
to
the
persistent
issue
of
state
bloat
in
blockchain
technology,
known
as
State
Archival,
according
to
Stellar.
This
approach
is
set
to
enhance
the
scalability,
transaction
speed,
and
overall
cost-efficiency
of
the
Stellar
(XLM)
network.

Addressing
State
Bloat

State
bloat
has
long
been
a
challenge
for
blockchain
networks,
leading
to
increased
costs,
slower
transaction
processing,
and
scalability
issues.
Stellar’s
State
Archival
aims
to
mitigate
these
problems
by
maintaining
small
databases
for
validators.
This
results
in
faster
transaction
execution
and
higher
throughput,
making
the
Stellar
network
one
of
the
most
scalable
in
the
industry.

Moreover,
the
smaller
databases
allow
new
nodes
to
sync
quickly
with
the
network,
reducing
the
size
of
the
ledger
history
and
consequently
lowering
costs.
While
non-validator
nodes
still
need
to
store
the
archived
state,
this
process
remains
efficient.
The
Archived
State
Tree
(AST)
is
an
immutable,
append-only
data
structure,
enabling
History
Archives
to
store
it
on
cost-effective
network
drives
rather
than
expensive
local
NVMe
drives
required
for
high-performance
validators.

Efficiency
and
Security

The
immutable
nature
of
the
AST
allows
for
sharding,
which
is
particularly
beneficial
for
Remote
Procedure
Call
(RPC)
providers.
They
can
shard
the
archived
state
across
multiple
nodes
and
balance
incoming
requests
accordingly.
Since
RPC
nodes
operate
off-chain
and
do
not
participate
in
consensus,
this
sharding
method
is
highly
efficient
and
poses
no
security
risks
compared
to
validator
sharding.

This
design
ensures
that
developers
and
users
experience
a
highly
scalable
and
user-friendly
system.
The
reduction
in
the
number
of
copies
of
the
archived
state,
without
compromising
security
or





decentralization,
further
enhances
the
system’s
efficiency.

Future
Developments

While
the
introduction
of
State
Archival
marks
a
significant
step
forward,
Stellar
plans
to
delve
deeper
into
the
protocol’s
security
and
performance
optimization
features
in
the
coming
weeks.
Future
blog
posts
will
compare
the
scalability
of
Stellar’s
solution
to
other
blockchain
networks
like
Solana
and
Ethereum.

For
those
interested
in
the
technical
specifications,
detailed
documentation
on
the
State
Archival
Interface
and
proof
specifications
are
available
on
Stellar’s
GitHub
repository.

Image
source:
Shutterstock