Vitalik Buterin proposed that before setting technical limits for Ethereum, it’s important to first define the purpose those limits are intended to serve. Some of the potential objectives include ensuring that fixed costs remain low enough to support a competitive and inclusive validator market, and that energy consumption stays within a range—approximately 15 kW—that makes it feasible to operate nodes from a residential setting. This would reduce dependence on large data centers, which pose censorship risks due to their centralized nature.