Author: Eric Voskuil 2018-08-29 14:40:16
Published on: 2018-08-29T14:40:16+00:00
A developer proposed making a new Bitcoin API that supports fast querying of Bitcoin blocks and transactions without the need for syncing with all previous nodes. The proposal aimed to create a unified method of finding/querying the blockchain data with a standardized template containing minimal information about the actual mined block or transaction, yet satisfying the need of what the user wants to query. However, this proposal has been met with criticism from Jonas Schnelli, who points out that such APIs usually result in central validation, which means users trust API services rather than validating their own data. It breaks some of the fundamental properties of Bitcoin (avoid trusted third parties). Systems or applications depending on a fully indexed blockchain (and thus such API) do not usually scale well.Schnelli asks for concrete use cases for such a block explorer(ish) API, but the original proposer believes it will be a great help to future web developers who want to make something similar. The implementation of such an API doesn't cause centralization, nor is full indexation non-scalable. It's the deployment cost of the node that is centralizing, which can be avoided if people run the API from a node under their control. Block explorers and light wallets are pretty useful, so some API must provide these features (ideally with reduced deployment cost). That will either be centralized or decentralized services. Therefore, encouraging decentralized services seems wise, as opposed to questioning whether there is any valid block explorer use case.
Updated on: 2023-06-13T14:17:05.041672+00:00