Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Removal of reject network messages from Bitcoin Core (BIP61)

From: "David A. Harding" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2019 12:45:35 -1000

On Thu, Oct 17, 2019 at 01:16:47PM -0700, Eric Voskuil via bitcoin-dev wrote:
> As this is a P2P protocol change it should be exposed as a version
> increment (and a BIP) [...]
>
> BIP61 is explicit:
> 
> “All implementations of the P2P protocol version 70,002 and later
> should support the reject message.“

I don't think a new BIP or a version number increment is necessary.

1. "Should support" isn't the same as "must support".  See
   https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119 ; by that reading,
   implementations with protocol versions above 70,002 are not required
   to support the reject message.

2. If you don't implement a BIP, as Bitcoin Core explicitly doesn't any
   more for BIP61[1], you're not bound by its conditions.

-Dave

[1] https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/bips.md  "BIP61
[...] Support was removed in v0.20.0"