State Sharding

Definition ∞ State sharding is an advanced form of network sharding where not only transaction processing but also the blockchain’s state data is partitioned across different shards. Each shard maintains its own segment of the global state, meaning nodes within a shard only need to store and process data relevant to that specific segment. This approach significantly reduces the storage and computational requirements for individual nodes. It enhances the network’s ability to scale by distributing the entire ledger’s state.
Context ∞ State sharding represents a more complex and ambitious approach to blockchain scalability, often discussed in the context of next-generation protocol development. News reports highlight projects working on this method as a means to achieve massive transaction throughput. The technical challenges involved in implementing secure and efficient cross-shard communication are considerable. Successful state sharding is viewed as a key advancement for supporting large-scale decentralized applications.