Published on: 2016-03-09T21:11:36+00:00
Andrew Stone, a member of the Bitcoin Unlimited team, expressed satisfaction with their own process for documentation and discussion of cross-implementation standards. He sees the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) process and the bitcoin-dev mailing list as Core specific. The BIP process allows for hashlocked descriptions of specifications to be implemented against. Stone proposed a process for claiming service bits, which involves justifying the claim, providing a finalized description of the feature within three months, deploying the feature within six months, and locking the bit after six months of active use.Luke Dashjr, in response to a proposal by Bitcoin Unlimited, clarified that the BIP process was actually created by Amir Taaki, not affiliated with Core, and encouraged Bitcoin Unlimited to use it for peer review from the wider Bitcoin development community. He offered to assign BIP numbers to the current Bitcoin Unlimited Improvement Proposals (BUIPs) if they meet the necessary requirements. Dashjr requested links to each of the BUIPs and noted that discussions may occur on other forums besides the mailing list.Stone wrote to the bitcoin-dev mailing list regarding the documentation and discussion of cross-implementation standards. Dashjr replied, stating that bitcoin-dev and the BIP process are not affiliated with Core, and suggested that Bitcoin Unlimited use the BIP process for peer review. He also offered to assign BIP numbers to the current BUIPs if they meet the requirements and requested links to them.Stone proposed using bit 4 as a services bit to indicate that the Bitcoin Unlimited client is capable of communicating thin blocks. Gregory Maxwell suggested a more general proposal that allows customization of user-agent specific service bits in the user-agent string. This would provide flexibility for future development and allow other clients to recognize or follow suit. The proposal does not change peer selection, and if it did, the preferred signaling mechanism would be the one in BIP 130. Stone also mentioned his tech services and ownership of Litmocracy and Meme Racing.A BIP concerning the use of a particular services bit for the extreme thin block protocol was sent to Luke jr for discussion. Bitcoin Unlimited has its own process for documentation and discussion on an uncensored forum. Stone requested interested engineers to join their forum with ideas and criticisms. It is up to Core to decide whether they want to preserve interoperability by avoiding the use of bit 1. The BIP proposes using a service bit to communicate support for thin block communication messages, with the most appropriate location being a service bit. The preferred signaling mechanism is likely the one in BIP 130, and numbers are obtained through writing BIPs.The email thread discussed the proposal to use bit 4 as a services bit for indicating that the Bitcoin Unlimited client can communicate thin blocks. Maxwell questioned if this would change peer selection and suggested using the signaling mechanism in BIP 130 if it does not. If it does change peer selection, a BIP documenting the usage should be written. The conversation ended without further discussion.The discussion highlighted the need for a services bit to indicate a node's capability to communicate thin blocks. The proposal suggested using bit 4, as bit 3 is reserved for Segregated Witness. However, before claiming a bit, proof of usefulness and actual users is required. The NODE_GETUTXO bit, which is included in the BIPs, is not supported by Core and is only one of XT's features. Claiming one of the temporary bits 24-31 is also possible. Relevant information on NODE_GETUTXO and NODE_BLOOM can be found in their respective GitHub links. Providing a link to "thin blocks" would promote further discussion about its merits.In summary, G. Andrew Stone proposed implementing a services bit in the Bitcoin Unlimited client to indicate its capability of communicating thin blocks. Luke Dashjr clarified the BIP process's affiliation and encouraged Bitcoin Unlimited to use it for peer review. Gregory Maxwell suggested a more general proposal for user-agent specific service bits. The discussion also touched on the standard method for obtaining numbers through writing BIPs.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T17:56:50.325353+00:00