Published on: 2015-06-13T15:38:56+00:00
The email conversation discusses the possibility of encoding fee statistics in the coinbase transaction to assist SPV clients. However, concerns are raised about miners moving fees outside of explicit inband fees and the potential for individual miners to fabricate fee stats. The discussion also addresses the issue of blocks filling up and proposes working with the largest miners and pools to auction off space in their blocks. This would result in a federated service operator model but would avoid unpredictable transaction failure. The importance of predictability for users when it comes to transaction fees and dropped transactions is emphasized.Another proposal suggests agreeing on a data format and encoding it in an op_return output in the coinbase transaction for calculating average fee-per-kb paid by all transactions in a block. However, it is noted that SPV clients should not rely on this encoding until a softfork is activated. The trade-off between the size of transactions and altering consensus rules for Header-PoW-verifying client is also discussed. The email thread also discusses the vulnerability of replace-by-fee to fabrications by transaction relay services and proposes using information in the blockchain as a source of pricing information for fee decisions. The predictability of dropped transactions is addressed, with lowest fee/KB transactions being dropped first. However, it is pointed out that from the user's perspective, the dropping of transactions can still be unpredictable if they don't know how to pick the appropriate fees. The need for ways to increase transaction fees after initial broadcast is mentioned, as well as the issue of network congestion causing dropped transactions. It is suggested that knowing the network congestion at the present moment is critical, but this can be a lagging indicator based on the last time you connected. The proposal to embed output values into the signed data of transactions and upgrade the P2P protocol to send UTXO data is discussed as a method for SPV wallets to learn about fees. However, significant protocol upgrades and code changes would be required.The conversation also addresses the issue of implementing a mechanism for SPV clients to rely on fee and other statistics. The proposal suggests encoding this information in an op_return output within the coinbase transaction, but it is noted that the results can be fabricated by individual miners until a softfork is activated. The risk of Sybil attacks and the use of services like blockcypher for up-to-the-minute fee calculations are discussed. The implementation of such a mechanism is seen as valuable regardless of the outcome of the blocksize debate.Overall, the discussion revolves around finding solutions to the challenges associated with transaction fees, network congestion, and dropped transactions. Various proposals and concerns are raised, highlighting the need for reliable and predictable fee information for users and SPV clients.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T13:11:06.966083+00:00