# Vitalik Buterin | What makes an ideal state tree?

- Speakers: [Vitalik Buterin](https://streameth.org/speakers/vitalik-buterin)
- Channel: [Taipei Ethereum Meetup](https://streameth.org/taipei-ethereum-meetup)
- Date: 2021-10-09
- Duration: 41:51
- Topics: ethereum
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-LfgDAU0dABI
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfgDAU0dABI

## Description

Slides: https://hackmd.io/@vbuterin/ideal_state_tree_presentation#/

Speaker intro
Vitalik Buterin
Creator of Ethereum. Vitalik is the chief scientist of the Ethereum Foundation. Website: https://vitalik.ca/

Talk description
"What makes an ideal state tree?"
The Ethereum research community has recently been focusing on changing the state tree structure to enable stateless clients, with a lot of focus on Verkle trees as a solution. But what are the requirements for a state tree, and why won’t other alternatives (eg. polynomial commitments, accumulators) also work well? I describe the often quite subtle requirements that a tree structure suitable for state trees in Ethereum needs to fulfill, and while Verkle trees, while imperfect, are better than anything else we have seen so far.