Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said his pruned Geth node occupies 461 GiB, showing that high-performance computers purchased for local large language models can also run an Ethereum node. EIP-4444 and improvements to Geth’s Snap Sync process have reduced synchronization to roughly 12 hours under the conditions he described, although client choice, pruning settings and blockchain growth affect storage needs. Ethereum still recommends a 2 TB NVMe drive, providing additional headroom for operators. A locally run node lets users check network data without relying entirely on commercial RPC providers, but it does not by itself guarantee wallet privacy because applications can continue routing requests through those services. Buterin has linked broader privacy efforts to Kohaku tools and experimental command-line wallets, while the planned Glamsterdam upgrade is intended to improve synchronization further.