From: Matt Whitlock <bip@mattwhitlock•name>
To: gladoscc <admin@glados•cc>
Cc: bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation.org
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Uniquely identifying forked chains
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2015 16:15:40 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <2081350.pl7B3yspcG@crushinator> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAL7-sS1aMqrUzMEbiQUWuxFtVHGv+-is7-BeAuje3rfQs_-JeQ@mail.gmail.com>
Why would you use a hash of hashes? Wouldn't it be simpler and just as effective to use either:
1) the genesis block hash, or
2) the block hash of the first block in a fork?
Every block hash in a chain implicitly subsumes the genesis block hash of that chain, so there's no need to incorporate the genesis block hash again.
On Saturday, 29 August 2015, at 1:27 am, gladoscc via bitcoin-dev wrote:
> There has been discussion of using the genesis block hash to identify
> chains in BIP 21 (bitcoin:// URI scheme). However, this does not allow
> identification between blockchain forks building upon the same genesis
> block. While many see this as undesirable, I think it is inevitable that
> this will eventually happen at some point, and think it is best to build
> systems redundantly.
>
> I propose identifying blockchains for BIP 21 and any other relevant needs
> through:
>
> 1) the genesis block hash for a new chain, or
> 2) a hash of the genesis block hash, concatenated with block hash(es) of
> fork point(s) for a fork chain
>
> This would support forks, forks of forks, forks of forks of forks, etc
> while preserving a fixed length chain identifier.
>
> If a user wants to specify "whatever chain is the longest with PoW", they
> would use (1). In times where multiple chains are coexisting and being
> actively mined, a user can use (2) to specifically identify a chain.
>
> Thoughts?
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2015-08-28 20:15 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <CAL7-sS2mrBqM7w5T8mRBFvVrCaHy1zT1YsgrHUxRBqdTFqczow@mail.gmail.com>
[not found] ` <CAL7-sS3CaHvZxUb-Q6HagHYufYnko_T4TBoFhd31rr5OxaiAEw@mail.gmail.com>
2015-08-28 15:27 ` gladoscc
2015-08-28 20:15 ` Matt Whitlock [this message]
2015-08-28 20:45 ` Jorge Timón
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=2081350.pl7B3yspcG@crushinator \
--to=bip@mattwhitlock$(echo .)name \
--cc=admin@glados$(echo .)cc \
--cc=bitcoin-dev@lists$(echo .)linuxfoundation.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox