Author: Kalle Rosenbaum 2017-12-18 13:35:44
Published on: 2017-12-18T13:35:44+00:00
In a discussion on the Bitcoin-dev mailing list, Kalle Rosenbaum questioned why a full node that does initial block download must also download witnesses if they are going to skip verification anyway. Eric Voskuil responded by clarifying that Kalle was referring to the "assumevalid" feature of Bitcoin Core that skips signature verification up to a certain block height. Kalle proposed the idea of witnessless nodes that would not download witnesses for blocks up to a certain height, which would allow them to sync faster and provide full service to SPV wallets and local wallets. However, there are concerns about witnessless nodes potentially dividing the network in two parts with few connections between them. The discussion highlights the trade-offs and considerations involved in designing and implementing different types of nodes in the Bitcoin network.
Updated on: 2023-06-12T23:07:59.489391+00:00