Author: Greg Troxel 2013-07-27 00:43:00
Published on: 2013-07-27T00:43:00+00:00
Gregory Maxwell discusses the "portability" of Bitcoin to anything that can run relevant VMs. He mentions the trusted computing base for gitian and how it could be made smaller for long-term improvement. The discussion then moves onto a hypothetical situation where there is a bug in a database library used by Bitcoin, which creates an inconsistent consensus in the network if only half of it is updated with the fix. This results in a partitioned network that can only be resolved by abandoning the more permissive side. The conversation also touches upon the challenges of packaging different dependencies for Bitcoin, and the value of testing on new platforms using a full systems testing harness. Additionally, the importance of running regression tests is emphasized, and it is suggested that end-users should make it culturally normal to run them. Overall, Gregory's insights provide valuable information to anyone interested in understanding the technical nuances involved in Bitcoin's functioning.
Updated on: 2023-06-07T14:32:33.018949+00:00