Re: [bitcoin-dev] [patch] Switching Bitcoin Core to sqlite db

From: Simon Liu <simon@bitcartel•com>
To: Luke Dashjr <luke@dashjr•org>, telemaco <telemaco@neomailbox•net>
Cc: bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation.org
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] [patch] Switching Bitcoin Core to sqlite db
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2015 20:04:19 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <5632DE33.7030600@bitcartel.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <201510290803.52734.luke@dashjr.org>

Storage of UTXO data looks like an implementation detail and thus one
would have thought that the choice of database would not increase the
odds of consensus protocol failure.

Btcd, a full node implementation written in Go, already provides a
database interface which supports different backends:

https://github.com/btcsuite/btcd/tree/master/database

Given that UTXO storage is considered critical, it seems reasonable to
let a node operator decide for themselves if they want data stored in
LevelDB (which is not fully ACID compliant) or a database like Sqlite,
Oracle, DB2 etc.

If the storage requirements for UTXO data are fairly simple, consisting
mainly of puts and gets, there is a decent argument that using a
dedicated key-value store provides superior performance over a
traditional SQL database.

However, from a practical perspective, given that nodes operate on a
range of different hardware and even a little Raspberry Pi can run a
full node and keep up with the network, why not let those users with the
resources to operate big iron databases do so?  It would be a good
feature to have.

On 10/29/2015 01:03 AM, Luke Dashjr via bitcoin-dev wrote:
> I predict this would be a disaster. UTXO storage is CONSENSUS-CRITICAL code.
> Any divergence in implementation behaviour, including bugs AND bugfixes, may 
> cause consensus failure. For this to have a reasonable *hope* of working, we 
> need to choose one storage engine, and *will* need to maintain consensus-
> compatibility of it ourselves (since nobody else cares).
> 
> Fixing LevelDB frankly seems like an easier task than switching to anything 
> SQL-based, which would require a *lot* more *difficult-to-get-consensus-
> compatible* code that we are all (or at least mostly) very unfamiliar with.
> 
> Research is fine, but let's be realistic about deployment.
> 
> Luke
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