ANNOUNCEMENT! We're excited to share that The Block Pro, a portfolio of research, news and data products in one easy-to-use platform, launches later this month. Reach out to your account manager for more information about products and subscription options.
In order to be an active block and transaction verifying participant in the Ethereum network (a majority of dapps, miners, Infura, etc.), the disk size required to run a full node currently sits at ~130 – 150GB
The growth in Ethereum’s chain size is well known (+200% Y/Y), however the size itself isn’t the only friction, as fully synced nodes require constant cryptographic-linked verification in order to confirm transactions.
The cost to run a full node will vary dramatically across an end-user. For many, users can run a full node on AWS for anywhere from $50-$100 a month, or even a local instance (~300 GB of SSD) for as low as ~$30/month.
Considering the rapid decline in active Ethereum nodes (down ~66% since the start of 2018), the costs of minimizing trust may be getting too high for the average active network participant.
Footnotes
Join The Block Research for exclusive research like this
Gain access to this research piece and 100s of others, including ecosystem maps, company profiles, and topics spanning DeFi, CBDCs, banking and markets. Together with additional services, we help organizations understand what’s happening in the rapidly developing digital asset ecosystem.
