Ethereum has witnessed high activity in recent times, with many of those enthusiastic about cryptocurrencies seeing this as a good sign for the growth of the market. On the other hand though, it is worth considering the impact on storage and the blockchain history as more users take their place within the network.

The ethereum state, the database used to run all transactions, holds together all computations required to support the platform, and to manage the blockchain that is created. As the time and money required to store the state increases over time, fewer people are choosing to run full nodes (which are the backbone of any cryptocurrency network). In the short term this might not be a problem, but over time it could lead to the network falling under the control of a small number of individuals.

Since the current levels in growth began in earnest in late 2016, there has been pressure on developers to come up with new ways in which to deal with the pressure of storage and the growth of the database.

With growth expected to continue, it could come to a point where the Ethereum state is unmanageable, especially on small devices. Updates are being released throughout ethereum clients to help deal with the situation in the short term, until a long term solution can be found.