Ethereum Community Proposes Reducing Consensus Layer Block Retention Window to 36 Days

The Ethereum community has released a key Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) aimed at significantly reducing the consensus layer block retention window from approximately 146 days to roughly 36.4 days . This proposed change represents a non-forking informational modification that does not require a network upgrade or hard fork to implement . The proposal is designed to address the growing challenge of blockchain data expansion, which has been placing increasing hardware demands on node operators . By shortening the retention window, the EIP aims to significantly lower the bandwidth, disk usage, and time required for data backfill after checkpoint synchronization, helping to preserve Ethereum's decentralization by making node operation more accessible . This technical improvement reflects ongoing efforts to optimize Ethereum's infrastructure and improve node operational efficiency.