Author: Sergio Demian Lerner 2015-08-06 17:16:56
Published on: 2015-08-06T17:16:56+00:00
The discussion on Bitcoin-dev mailing list revolved around the technical aspects of large blocks and TheBlueMatt relay network. The relay network was discussed in detail, including its speed of transmission and block validation. It was noted that Bitcoin Core has cached validation for many years, which helps pre-validate transactions. Participants expressed confusion over the discussion about the impact of large blocks, miners building on invalid blocks, and the speed of block validation. The technical/security implications of larger blocks were related to other things than propagation time, assuming people use the available efficient relay protocol (or better). "SPV mining" was discussed as a misnomer, as it actually refers to blinding mining on top of other pools' stratum work. VFSSP (validation free stratum subpooling) was explained as an easy fix to cut down the orphan rates for anyone who did it. VFSSP also avoids practical issues miners have had, such as running their own bitcoin nodes in faraway colocation or strange internet routing. Mining operations were noted to be largely fire and forget, with some use of VFSSP due to inertia, even though better solutions are now available. The discussion concluded with a mention of how bad outcomes are possible even when they're not necessary, highlighting the need for good monitoring and effective communication in the industry.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T18:17:27.646913+00:00