Published on: 2020-09-14T02:11:32+00:00
The Bitcoin Core has announced that Signet PR 18267 is now in an advanced stage of review, and they are encouraging additional code review and testing. However, there are some meta questions surrounding Signets that need to be discussed outside of the Bitcoin Core repo to ensure that everyone's testing needs are being met.The first question raised is whether there should be one "default" Signet for specific purposes or if multiple custom Signets should exist. The argument for a "default" Signet with a network effect is that it would provide a staging ground for testing proposed soft forks and prevent splintered Signet networks with different combinations of proposed soft forks enabled. However, there would have to be a formal understanding of at what stage a proposed soft fork should be enabled on the "default" Signet. This could present challenges if soft forks are enabled and then change or get updated.The second question raised is who should have keys to sign each new block on the "default" Signet assuming it exists. Currently, it is a 1-of-2 multisig with Kalle Alm and AJ Towns having keys. However, it was suggested on IRC that there should be at least one additional key present in the EU/US timezone so blocks can continue to be mined during an Asia-Pacific outage.The third question raised is regarding concerns from some in the community that testnet will be replaced by Signet. Michael Folkson assures that testnet will continue as long as someone out there is mining testnet blocks. However, there is a question of whether testnet needs to be reset since it was last reset in 2012. Assuming Signet is successful, there will be less testing on testnet, but certain testing use cases will still prefer testnet. It has been argued that testnet should be a large chain to stress test certain scenarios, and in that case, we may not want to reset testnet.Michael encourages thoughts, feedback, and questions from the Bitcoin community to ensure that everyone's testing needs are being considered. While there is a closed issue on the Bitcoin Core repo for prior conversation, it is ideal for discussions outside of Bitcoin Core to take place on the mailing list or on IRC.
Updated on: 2023-08-02T02:38:56.976981+00:00