Is it possible to run a state only node ?

Hey,

I'm not really sure how different Ethereum is from Bitcoin in client logic. From my understanding, there are transactions and state (smart contract values, etc…).

In my case, I need to access the read-only features of some smart contracts without spending too much on hardware.

My current solution was to use an rpc provider, request the state of contract x, then listen for new blocks and update the state on my end based on the transactions received. This is necessary to avoid hitting rate limits, as my usage uses a large number of requests.

The problem is that the "sync" part can take days with the current rate limit because I'm using contract calls, which probably isn't the best solution. So I wanted to know if it was possible to run a node without the whole blockchain, just with the state, the goal is not to verify transactions but to know more efficiently the state of specific contracts.

Do you know if this is possible? if not, is it difficult to create my own implementation to request this directly on the network like real nodes do, and include my logic instead?

A kind of ethereum client that sync only a specific part of the state and does not store or verify transactions