delvingbitcoin

Second Look at Weak Blocks

Second Look at Weak Blocks

Original Postby AntoineP

Posted on: April 18, 2024 12:46 UTC

The discussion emphasizes the advantages of leveraging compact blocks to mitigate the issues associated with slow block propagation due to inconsistent relay policies across the network.

This approach is preferred over introducing Invertible Bloom Lookup Tables (IBLTs) or similar technologies, highlighting a strategy that capitalizes on existing structures for efficiency and effectiveness. The conversation also touches upon alternative solutions such as the concept of weak blocks. This idea entails miners relaying blocks with partial Proof of Work (PoW) solutions—specifically, those achieving about 10% of the required difficulty—to the network. Such blocks enable nodes to preemptively include transactions in their mempool, bolstered by the evidence that these transactions are under consideration by miners. This method offers resilience against Denial of Service (DoS) attacks since even partial PoW signifies computational effort.

Moreover, the dialogue delves into the concept of pinning and its implications for transaction inclusion within mined blocks. It clarifies that if a miner is already processing a template featuring a specific transaction, the risk of that transaction being 'pinned' or excluded diminishes significantly. Additionally, weak blocks present a novel utility in serving as a mechanism for detecting pinning. They offer a way to recognize when a transaction, despite offering a fee incentivizing its inclusion in the next block, fails to appear in any miner's template. This aspect introduces an extra layer of transparency and diagnostic capability concerning transaction handling and inclusion on the network, enriching the toolkit for addressing and navigating the complexities of blockchain dynamics.