StarkWare launches lightweight Bitcoin verification for use on mobile devices

StarkWare, a institution specializing successful zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, a mode of verifying accusation without revealing the circumstantial contents of that information, said it created a ZK verification of the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain that tin tally connected mobile devices.

The impervious contains each the Bitcoin artifact headers from the genesis artifact until the present, but not the afloat and elaborate Bitcoin blockchain history, which is implicit 680 gigabytes successful size. 

Each artifact header includes the mentation fig of the Bitcoin bundle utilized to excavation the block, a notation to the erstwhile artifact successful the chain, a timestamp, the artifact size and the nonce — the random fig the miner has to find to adhd the artifact to the ledger.

StarkWare’s BTC ledger impervious comes successful astatine conscionable 1 megabyte (MB) successful size, to supply users with a mode of verifying transactions successful nether 100 milliseconds, Abdelhamid Bakhta, caput of ecosystem astatine StarkWare, told Cointelegraph.

An illustrated exemplary of SPV outlined successful Satoshi’s Bitcoin whitepaper. Source: Nakamoto Institute

The lightweight lawsuit builds connected Simplified Payment Verification (SPV), a conception outlined successful Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper, which allows smaller lightweight nodes a mode of verifying payments without having to download the afloat ledger.

StarkWare’s announcement is important successful that it volition let immoderate idiosyncratic to verify Bitcoin payments without mounting up a full Bitcoin node, which tin outgo betwixt $300 to $1,000, and whitethorn beryllium excessively technically analyzable for the mean idiosyncratic to decently install. 

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Node retention requirements and ledger size go points of contention successful the BTC community

The requirements to tally a Bitcoin node are comparatively easier than those of different blockchain networks, which whitethorn necessitate tens of thousands of dollars to run. 

Bitcoin nodes tin tally connected retail idiosyncratic computers owed to the comparative simplicity of the Bitcoin protocol, which has generated lone 680 gigabytes of information since 2009.

The fig of Bitcoin nodes has been steadily rising since 2015. Source: Coin Dance

This comparative simplicity and accessible hardware requirements are cardinal to preserving decentralization of the protocol and maintaining Bitcoin’s statement mechanism, which is enforced by autarkic node runners.

If nodes go excessively costly due to the fact that of mounting hardware requirements, the web becomes centralized nether ample work providers with the resources to tally the required hardware, going against Bitcoin’s halfway worth proposition. 

Inscriptions, ordinals, and different forms of non-monetary information retention connected the blockchain create this centralization risk by expanding the size of the ledger and requiring node operators to store important amounts of non-monetary data, critics say.

In May, Bitcoin Core, the developers of the bundle utilized by astir 80% of BTC node runners, announced that the upcoming Bitcoin Core 30 update, slated for merchandise successful October, volition remove the OP_Return limit, which caps the magnitude of non-monetary information that tin beryllium embedded successful Bitcoin transactions.

The breakdown of antithetic implementations of the Bitcoin node software. Source Coin Dance

The OP_Return bounds is presently 80 bytes, acold excessively tiny to store the bulk of images and multimedia contented today, and the projected alteration has prompted a historical surge successful users moving Bitcoin Knots nodes.

Bitcoin Knots is an alternate Bitcoin node bundle and features much customizable parameters, including options for the node runners to bounds the magnitude of OP_Return information they volition store successful their representation pools and relay to different nodes. 

Knots nodes present account for astir 20% of the web successful 2025 — an astir vertical summation from the extremity of 2024, erstwhile Knots nodes accounted for astir 1% of the full marketplace share.

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