Statelessness

A design goal where nodes can verify new blocks without storing the entire blockchain state, using small cryptographic witnesses shipped with each block instead of a local copy of everything. It lowers the hardware cost of verification, helping keep a network decentralised as state grows. 'Weak statelessness' (block producers hold state and make witnesses; validators verify statelessly) is the realistic near-term target; verkle trees make the witnesses small enough to be practical.