State Rent

State rent is a proposed economic model for blockchains where users pay a recurring fee to keep their data stored on the network. Unlike a one-time gas payment for storage, state rent ensures that the cost of maintaining data scales with the amount of space occupied over time.

This approach aims to solve the issue of infinite state growth, which can make it increasingly difficult for new nodes to synchronize with the network. By charging for storage duration, the protocol creates a market-driven incentive to delete unused data.

It shifts the burden of storage costs from the network participants to those who actively use the storage. This model is often discussed as a long-term solution to sustainable blockchain scalability.