Author: Jameson Lopp 2015-08-19 12:44:03
Published on: 2015-08-19T12:44:03+00:00
In an email exchange between Hector Chu and Jameson Lopp, they discussed the use of SPV and validation of unconfirmed transactions. Lopp mentioned that using SPV is only for checking the validity of transactions that have already entered the blockchain, while Chu proposed nodes to validate transactions that are unconfirmed and commit to the validation by doing a proof of work on it. Lopp explained that if running an SPV node that is listening to full nodes on the network, it's possible to request an unconfirmed transaction from connected peers after receiving the inventory message they send and that this is not 100% proof but a very good indicator of its validity. Lopp also raised concerns that Chu's proposal would significantly increase the data size of every transaction, which will create even more contention for block space. Chu suggested that if they stipulate that the coinbase fields only hold space for a single pubkey, then the entire block header including the two coinbases should only take an extra 100 bytes or so. He added that transactions are already routinely 250 bytes+, so an increase of roughly 33%.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T20:37:15.891211+00:00