delvingbitcoin

Second Look at Weak Blocks

Second Look at Weak Blocks

Original Postby instagibbs

Posted on: April 19, 2024 18:18 UTC

The discussion focuses on the technical intricacies of improving blockchain efficiency, particularly in the context of Bitcoin transactions.

The suggestion revolves around the propagation of transactions (TX) and metadata using INV messages instead of transmitting entire weak blocks. This raises a crucial question regarding the determination of which transactions need to be forwarded to peers, especially when these peers may have differing policies. The challenge lies in predicting which transactions to relay and the proposal to do so within prefilled transactions alongside real compact blocks.

A potential solution is hinted at with the idea that subsequent weak blocks could transmit less information per link, aiming for further bandwidth optimization. This approach suggests a significant increase in the number of weak-compact-blocks relative to standard bitcoin blocks—up to 35 times more. For each compact block, using 32kb implies an additional 1.1MB of bandwidth required between blocks for these messages, including the transactions not initially transmitted. This bandwidth increase is considered reasonable for an opt-in measure, provided that the underlying problem is accurately identified and the proposed solution proves to be effective.