Author: Pieter Wuille 2014-06-24 13:37:59
Published on: 2014-06-24T13:37:59+00:00
The author of this message argues that there is a difference between what the core nodes should be like and what the codebase core nodes are built from must support. He suggests that with sufficiently modularized code, one can build a binary that does full verification and maintains some indexes of some sort. However, the author believes that what we push for as the core nodes of the network should aim for purely verification and relay, and nothing else. Despite this, the author acknowledges that people will do things differently if the source code allows it.In response to a question about the advantage of having processes talking via the p2p protocol instead of something more direct when controlling both processes, the author explains that maintaining a correct view of the current state of the chain (excluding blocks, just headers) is already sufficiently hard. The author believes that simplifying things a bit by not needing to verify what the peer claims if you trust them, but not much. The author suggests that supporting reorganizations, counting confirmations, making sure you stay up-to-date are functions the (SPV) P2P protocol has already shown to do well, and there are several codebases out there that implement it. The author concludes by saying that there's no need to reinvent the wheel with a marginally more efficient protocol if it means starting over everything else.
Updated on: 2023-05-19T19:01:33.778335+00:00