Author: Lautaro Dragan 2019-03-09 19:52:26
Published on: 2019-03-09T19:52:26+00:00
A developer working on a network called "signet" has proposed it as a complement to the already existing testnet. It is completely centralized, and blocks are signed by a specific key rather than using proof of work. The benefits of this include being more predictable than testnet, stability, ease of performing global testing such as reorgs, and trivial to spin up new signets for public tests. Anyone can create a signet at any time simply by creating a key pair and creating a challenge (scriptPubKey). The developer proposes that a default persistent "signet1" be created, which could be replaced in future versions if the coins were unwisely used as real money. The proposal suggests that the key holder should be someone sufficiently trusted in the community who would run the system (block generation code, faucet, etc.). The implementation-wise, the code adds an std::map with block hash to block signature. This is serialized/deserialized as appropriate (Segwit witness style), which means block headers in p2p messages are (80 + solution_length) bytes. The developer does not think this PR is overly intrusive and hopes to get signet code into Bitcoin Core eventually. Feedback is requested on the proposal. At Po.et, regtest is used to simulate reorgs in integration tests in Travis/CircleCI, and for local development, a script is used to mine blocks in regtest periodically. The developer asks what limitations have been found in using a private network of bitcoin core nodes running regtest instead, giving the same power as centralization without any changes or extra functionality required.
Updated on: 2023-06-13T17:35:54.215165+00:00