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From: Brian Hoffman <brianchoffman@gmail.com>
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Cc: Bitcoin Dev <bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Chain pruning
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Ok I think I've got a good understanding of where we're at now. I can
promise that the next person to waste your time in 30 days will not be me.
I'm pleasantly surprised to see a community that doesn't kickban newcomers
and takes the time to explain (re-explain) concepts.

Hoping to add *beneficial* thoughts in the future!


On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 12:59 PM, Pieter Wuille <pieter.wuille@gmail.com>wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 6:47 PM, Brian Hoffman <brianchoffman@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Looks like only about ~30% disk space savings so I see your point. Is
> there
> > a critical reason why blocks couldn't be formed into "superblocks" that
> are
> > chained together and nodes could serve a specific superblock, which
> could be
> > pieced together from different nodes to get the full blockchain? This
> would
> > allow participants with limited resources to serve full portions of the
> > blockchain rather than limited pieces of the entire blockchain.
>
> As this is a suggestion that I think I've seen come up once a month
> for the past 3 years, let's try to answer it thoroughly.
>
> The actual "state" of the blockchain is the UTXO set (stored in
> chainstate/ by the reference client). It's the set of all unspent
> transaction outputs at the currently active point in the block chain.
> It is all you need for validating future blocks.
>
> The problem is, you can't just give someone the UTXO set and expect
> them to trust it, as there is no way to prove that it was the result
> of processing the actual blocks.
>
> As Bitcoin's full node uses a "zero trust" model, where (apart from
> one detail: the order of otherwise valid transactions) it never
> assumes any data received from the outside it valid, it HAS to see the
> previous blocks in order to establish the validity of the current UTXO
> set. This is what initial block syncing does. Nothing but the actual
> blocks can provide this data, and it is why the actual blocks need to
> be available. It does not require everyone to have all blocks, though
> - they just need to have seen them during processing.
>
> A related, but not identical evolution is merkle UTXO commitments.
> This means that we shape the UTXO set as a merkle tree, compute its
> root after every block, and require that the block commits to this
> root hash (by putting it in the coinbase, for example). This means a
> full node can copy the chain state from someone else, and check that
> its hash matches what the block chain commits to. It's important to
> note that this is a strict reduction in security: we're now trusting
> that the longest chain (with most proof of work) commits to a valid
> UTXO set (at some point in the past).
>
> In essence, combining both ideas means you get "superblocks" (the UTXO
> set is essentially the summary of the result of all past blocks), in a
> way that is less-than-currently-but-perhaps-still-acceptably-validated.
>
> --
> Pieter
>

--047d7b6dd002949a1c04f6b33c04
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
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<div dir=3D"ltr">Ok I think I&#39;ve got a good understanding of where we&#=
39;re at now. I can promise that the next person to waste your time in 30 d=
ays will not be me. I&#39;m pleasantly surprised to see a community that do=
esn&#39;t kickban newcomers and takes the time to explain (re-explain) conc=
epts.=C2=A0<div>
<br></div><div>Hoping to add *beneficial* thoughts in the future!</div></di=
v><div class=3D"gmail_extra"><br><br><div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr=
 10, 2014 at 12:59 PM, Pieter Wuille <span dir=3D"ltr">&lt;<a href=3D"mailt=
o:pieter.wuille@gmail.com" target=3D"_blank">pieter.wuille@gmail.com</a>&gt=
;</span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1p=
x #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 6:47 PM, Brian Hoffm=
an &lt;<a href=3D"mailto:brianchoffman@gmail.com">brianchoffman@gmail.com</=
a>&gt; wrote:<br>

&gt; Looks like only about ~30% disk space savings so I see your point. Is =
there<br>
&gt; a critical reason why blocks couldn&#39;t be formed into &quot;superbl=
ocks&quot; that are<br>
&gt; chained together and nodes could serve a specific superblock, which co=
uld be<br>
&gt; pieced together from different nodes to get the full blockchain? This =
would<br>
&gt; allow participants with limited resources to serve full portions of th=
e<br>
&gt; blockchain rather than limited pieces of the entire blockchain.<br>
<br>
As this is a suggestion that I think I&#39;ve seen come up once a month<br>
for the past 3 years, let&#39;s try to answer it thoroughly.<br>
<br>
The actual &quot;state&quot; of the blockchain is the UTXO set (stored in<b=
r>
chainstate/ by the reference client). It&#39;s the set of all unspent<br>
transaction outputs at the currently active point in the block chain.<br>
It is all you need for validating future blocks.<br>
<br>
The problem is, you can&#39;t just give someone the UTXO set and expect<br>
them to trust it, as there is no way to prove that it was the result<br>
of processing the actual blocks.<br>
<br>
As Bitcoin&#39;s full node uses a &quot;zero trust&quot; model, where (apar=
t from<br>
one detail: the order of otherwise valid transactions) it never<br>
assumes any data received from the outside it valid, it HAS to see the<br>
previous blocks in order to establish the validity of the current UTXO<br>
set. This is what initial block syncing does. Nothing but the actual<br>
blocks can provide this data, and it is why the actual blocks need to<br>
be available. It does not require everyone to have all blocks, though<br>
- they just need to have seen them during processing.<br>
<br>
A related, but not identical evolution is merkle UTXO commitments.<br>
This means that we shape the UTXO set as a merkle tree, compute its<br>
root after every block, and require that the block commits to this<br>
root hash (by putting it in the coinbase, for example). This means a<br>
full node can copy the chain state from someone else, and check that<br>
its hash matches what the block chain commits to. It&#39;s important to<br>
note that this is a strict reduction in security: we&#39;re now trusting<br=
>
that the longest chain (with most proof of work) commits to a valid<br>
UTXO set (at some point in the past).<br>
<br>
In essence, combining both ideas means you get &quot;superblocks&quot; (the=
 UTXO<br>
set is essentially the summary of the result of all past blocks), in a<br>
way that is less-than-currently-but-perhaps-still-acceptably-validated.<br>
<span class=3D"HOEnZb"><font color=3D"#888888"><br>
--<br>
Pieter<br>
</font></span></blockquote></div><br></div>

--047d7b6dd002949a1c04f6b33c04--