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  BIP: unassigned
  Layer: Peer Services
  Title: Non-confirming block signalling
  Author: Tomas van der Wansem <[email protected]>
  Status: Draft
  Type: Standards Track
  Created: 2017-05-05
  License: PD

Table of Contents

Abstract

This BIP describes a standard method for publishing blocks that do not confirm validity of the previous block.

Motivation

Miners today use a method commonly known as SPV-mining. They start mining on top of a block as soon as they receive the headers, before they downloaded or verified the transactions. This not only increases their own profit but also helps decentralization as it diminishes the advantage of miners with high resources.

The drawback is that it decreases the security of the network, as users will perceive such a block as a confirmation of the validity of the previous block.

To counter this drawback, I propose a way for miners to flag non-confirming blocks.

Specification

We define bit 29 of the 32-bits little endian version field in the block header as the non-confirming bit.

Any block that is published without fully verifying the previous block should set the non-confirming bit.

Comments

An optimal miner will:

  • As soon a blockheader is downloaded, mine upon with only a coinbase and the non-confirming bit set.
  • As soon as all TXIDs are known, mine upon it with a mempool selection and the non-confirming bit set.
  • As soon as all transactions are fully verified, mine upon it with a mempool selection and the non-confirming bit cleared.
Any software relying on transaction security should not count blocks with the non-confirming bit set as confirmations, unless blocks are received upon it which have the non-confirming bit cleared.

This proposals removes the 29th softfork-version as defined in BIP 9.

Reference

It was pointed out to me that this BIP is duplicate with a proposal by Gregory Maxwell: https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2015-December/011853.html

Copyright

This document is placed in the public domain.