Published on: 2017-12-28T20:49:38+00:00
In a message posted on Dec 28, 2017, Dan Bryant proposed a solution to address the uncertainty surrounding transaction aging in the Bitcoin network. Currently, the relay policy of the network specifies when transactions will "age out," but there is no guarantee that miners will exclude these transactions from the blockchain even after the specified timeout. This lack of certainty prevents users from having actionable information about transaction aging.To tackle this issue, Bryant suggested expanding the transaction format through a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP). The proposal involves including the chain-height or block number in the transaction (TXN), allowing nodes and miners to determine the age of the TXN and choose not to rebroadcast it once it reaches a certain age threshold. Presently, nodes and miners maintain a "seen-list" of transactions and age them based on when they were last seen. However, this approach could result in TXNs being broadcast indefinitely if the unspent transaction output (UTXO) remains untouched.The objective of the proposed BIP is not to enhance the protocol itself, but rather to provide users with better certainty regarding transaction aging. However, there are potential abuse vectors to consider. For instance, a malicious party could broadcast a low fee transaction near the age-out threshold, hoping to exploit the fact that the transaction will age out in the next block.If the Bitcoin Core team is open to considering this proposal, Bryant expressed his willingness to draft a BIP. By expanding the transaction format and incorporating chain-height, this proposal aims to make it easier for users to know when a transaction will age out with greater certainty.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T22:22:50.931917+00:00