Ethereum activity has increased massively in recent weeks, causing network congestion resulting in a spike in prices and the backlogging of transactions. The larger database also demands that users looking to run a full node are hit with heavy storage costs, a state of affairs that could potentially mean that the network becomes dominated by a handful of central figures.

The latter issue is something that Ethereum developers are currently seeking to tackle by changing protocols, such as sharding. However, as the Ethereum database rapidly expands, the team behind the technology face new challenges to deal with its growth and the unruliness that comes with it.

Afri Schoedon is head of technical communications at Parity, an Ethereum software provider. Schoedon has felt the growing pressures of new demands for the adequate management of the system.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Schoedon said that based on current growth patterns, the system is set to accelerate its growth this year, and will likely reach a point in which it is no longer manageable on devices such as smartphones. In order to help beat the demands of the unwieldy expansion, Parity has released a new update designed to tackle the situation. Temporary files created by the software that memorises Ethereum\'s history are to be eradicated, effectively minimising storage requirements and allowing for synchronisation to happen at a far speedier rate.