I'm doing research on blockchain architecture to find a way that a fully-validated blockchain could be built, but uses epochs so the IBD (initial block download) and overall blockchain size is limited. The best way to describe this idea is comparing and contrasting to other existing ideas:
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Bitcoin: retains all blockchain data forever. This causes the blockchain to grow infinitely without bounds, over time. The IBD is continually getting longer, and the amount of data needed to download in order to get an archival node working is constantly growing.
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Mina: uses ZKP (zero knowledge proofs) to keep the entire blockchain below 500kB at all times. Each new block is compressed using ZKP, and all the actual data is thrown away. This means things like inflation bugs can never be verified.
What I'm looking for is something inbetween these two extremes. I like the auditibility of verified chains like Bitcoin, and I like the small size of Mina.