Light Clients Actually Work

Light clients finally work well enough for real applications. Verify state without storing the full chain. The dream of trustless mobile wallets is actually achievable now.

The sync committees made this viable for Ethereum. A rotating set of validators signs off on state. Light clients just verify these signatures. No need to replay every transaction ever.

Helios as a primary RPC is viable now. Block headers stream in, state proofs verify, queries resolve. The latency is slightly higher but the trustlessness is worth it.

Bridges benefit enormously. Instead of trusting multisigs, verify state proofs from light clients. The security model improves by orders of magnitude. Some bridges already integrate this.

Mobile wallets are the consumer use case. Your phone can verify its own balance without trusting Infura. True self-custody with verification. The UX gap with traditional apps shrinks.

The remaining challenges are around state access patterns. Random queries need many proofs. Verkle trees will help when they arrive. For now, careful architecture around proof requirements matters.