Main takeaway: Vitalik Buterin proposes the Extremely Lean Chain to shrink validator on-chain state to 6 bytes (1-byte effective balance + 5-byte deposit tree index). Validators keep deposit Merkle proofs and submit daily STARKs to update balances and records, removing per-epoch processing. The plan phases out on-chain public keys for deposit-tree indices, adds daily key refresh for strong anonymity and SSLE support, and aims to cut consensus state and compute costs so Ethereum can scale validators to millions while enabling privacy in later versions.
Foresight News 消息，Vitalik Buterin 发布「The Extremely Lean Chain」新提案。其中提案核心是将当前 Beacon 链中每个验证者存储的状态（公钥、提款凭证、激活 / 退出 epoch 等）大幅精简，仅保留 6 字节（1 字节有效余额 + 5 字节存款树索引）。验证者需自行跟踪存款默克尔证明，并通过每日生成的 STARK 证明来异步更新有效余额和参与记录，而非由链上每 epoch 实时处理。提案计划分为多阶段推进：移除公钥存储，改用存款树索引，并通过每日 STARK 证明完成余额更新；随后引入每日公钥刷新机制，实现验证者身份的强匿名化，同时自然支持 Single Secret Leader Election（SSLE）。该设计在单槽最终性（SSF）和递归 STARK 等 Lean 升级背景下被认为可行，目标是显著降低共识层状态开销和计算负担，支持验证者数量扩展至数百万级别，同时在高级版本中提供较强的隐私保护。