[Vitalik Proposes 'Extremely Lean Chain' Solution: Validators Submit Daily STARK Proofs, State Storage Compressed to 6 Bytes] Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has published the proposal 'The Extremely Lean Chain,' outlining how to aggressively compress the state requirements of Ethereum's consensus chain in the context of the 'Lean' upgrade. This solution shifts responsibility to validators, who manage and periodically prove their state using ZK proofs, thereby eliminating the processing burden for each epoch and potentially supporting a scale of millions of validators. The core mechanisms include: - Removing validator public keys from the on-chain state, storing only deposit tree indices. - Eliminating real-time rewards and penalties processing, with validators generating daily STARK proofs of their participation and updating their balances. - Fully randomizing validator identities daily, achieving strong anonymity through ZK-STARKs. Withdrawal addresses are only exposed at the time of withdrawal and are not publicly linked to deposits or on-chain activities.