>> Additionally, BIP 111 (NODE_BLOOM service bit) has been implemented in Bitcoin >> Core and derivatives; it is unclear if used by clients yet. Can developers of >> such clients please comment and let me know: 1) if their software supports >> this BIP already; 2) if not, do they intend to support it in the future? >> If and only if there are any clients using this service bit already, I will >> update BIP 111 to Final Status in 2 weeks also. > > Multibit is adding detection of the NODE_BLOOM bit in the next 2-3 weeks. > > SPV is kinda broken if the wallet doesn’t do this detection. If your wallet connects only to nodes that don’t support bloom filtering, the wallet never gets updates. We have had a spike in users reporting that their wallet isn't getting updated. To compound the problem, they rescan the blockchain and lose all of their transaction history. It has caused much panic among less technical users. > > We believe that failing to detect the NODE_BLOOM bit is the culprit, although it is non-deterministic, so we aren't certain. > > I imagine that other SPV wallets are having similar issues. BIP 111 really isn’t optional at this point, so it should be marked final. SPV Wallets should definitively update to respect NODE_BLOOM. Bloom filtering is CPU and disk intense and some node operators have disabled it (or will disabled it) because there is no direct p2p network-health benefit. SPV wallets should probably also make use of the new DNS seeder filter option. It is running at least on seed.bitcoin.sipa.be and seed.bitcoin.jonasschnelli.ch. The filter option allows SPV Wallets to only get nodes that signal support for NODE_BLOOM. The syntax is x.seed.bitcoin.... Example for NODE_NETWORK together with NODE_BLOOM dig x5.seed.bitcoin.jonasschnelli.ch (NETWORK = (1 << 0), NODE_BLOOM = (1 << 2)) = (bin00000101 = (int)5)