Return-Path: Received: from silver.osuosl.org (smtp3.osuosl.org [140.211.166.136]) by lists.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 72D44C0051 for ; Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:44:55 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by silver.osuosl.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F46A20134 for ; Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:44:55 +0000 (UTC) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at osuosl.org Received: from silver.osuosl.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (.osuosl.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id WpEWSklRkZN7 for ; Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:44:53 +0000 (UTC) X-Greylist: delayed 00:08:01 by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from mail.cock.li (mail.cock.li [37.120.193.124]) by silver.osuosl.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 9C4342010F for ; Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:44:53 +0000 (UTC) MIME-Version: 1.0 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=cock.li; s=mail; t=1600519007; bh=DACcdygWLylFEDVz6Hk9oB7JI2Z6BbL5IqkcqtzWXe0=; h=Date:From:To:Subject:From; b=WufS5gK1xWGVUvC4IuO/yIBjonJeq5YYwQfghnTQIRH7+Ga5NOFXIYnG43aHmNm0g +GGXScsz6avLrTJGixRnT6NnMyF3iGoQHzZAk61/5EoZ15A7+yNcM7uTBPJwLwxiEb gMz0AEsfyx2mnwuVkwHMNI+EcvumiU7xHzsfTmOZIYZ7CpG2ZkMMTYGpLyWoJouBnS 7PVGadgqYMZ3Df7GmL2gqNFekodtvCi3hvOW5Mg+2jR8hf7LskA/mwG2mw8z02eCTU Me57+q5c0uGYe/S4e3x3xAzYwuQP/4GziJymckU0ejZP+ACaDVKhG7eoCSFaVC1VfS dNI4seyHjVDHA== Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:36:47 +0000 From: yanmaani@cock.li To: Bitcoin Protocol Discussion Message-ID: <42c7e76c023b403a9e99d29a1836b53e@cock.li> X-Sender: yanmaani@cock.li User-Agent: Roundcube Webmail/1.3.10 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Sat, 19 Sep 2020 13:08:33 +0000 Subject: [bitcoin-dev] Suggestion: Solve year 2106 problem by taking timestamps mod 2^32 X-BeenThere: bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.15 Precedence: list List-Id: Bitcoin Protocol Discussion List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:44:55 -0000 Currently, Bitcoin's timestamp rules are as follows: 1. The block timestamp may not be lower than the median of the last 11 blocks' 2. The block timestamp may not be greater than the current time plus two hours 3. The block timestamp may not be greater than 2^32 (Sun, 07 Feb 2106 06:28:16 +0000) Thus, Bitcoin will "die" on or about 2106-02-07, when there is no timestamp below 2^32 that exceeds the median of the last 11 blocks. If the rules were changed to the following, this problem would be solved: 1. The block timestamp plus k*2^32 may not be lower than the median of the last 11 blocks' 2. The block timestamp plus k*2^32 may not be greater than the current time plus two hours 3. k is an integer, whose value must be the same for the calculations of Rule 1 and Rule 2 This would cause a hardfork in the year 2106, which is approximately 85.5 years from now, by which time 95% of nodes would hopefully have updated. Another proposed solution is 64-bit timestamps. They would break compatibility with other software that has specific expectations of header fields, like ASICs' firmware. They would also cause a hardfork before the date of timestamp overflow. I thus believe them to be a less appropriate solution. What do you think of this idea? Is it worth a BIP?