Clear DefinitionsStateless Clients
1 min read
Pronunciation
[steyt-lis klahy-uhnts]
Analogy
Think of a stateless client as a traveler who checks flight details at the airport kiosk instead of carrying a full directory of all airline schedules.
Definition
Clients that do not store the full blockchain state locally and instead request necessary data on demand from full nodes or specialized services.
Key Points Intro
Stateless clients reduce local resource requirements by deferring state management.
Key Points
Minimal storage: only recent headers or proofs are kept locally
On-demand data: fetches account state or UTXOs when needed
Trust model: relies on authenticated proofs from full nodes
Scalability: lowers barrier for running nodes on constrained devices
Example
Technical Deep Dive
Stateless clients maintain a verifier that checks Merkle proofs against block headers containing state roots. Nodes generate witnesses—Merkle branches and necessary state—to prove account balances or contract storage values. Proof aggregation techniques can batch multiple requests to optimize bandwidth.
Caveat
Increased dependency on full nodes and potential latency from frequent proof requests.
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