Bitcoin nodes could download the most recent UTXO index too. Validating the entire history is necessary in both if you want to trust nothing except the client c

Bitcoin nodes could download the most recent UTXO index too. Validating the entire history is necessary in both if you want to trust nothing except the client code you're given. An archival node in Ethereum goes beyond a full node, and stores data not needed to do full validation. A full node in Ethereum needs to download about 80 GB I believe, which is a tenth of what an archival node needs to download and store.