2017-08-28 19:12 GMT+02:00 Gregory Maxwell via bitcoin-dev <
bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>:

>
> The bits field can only change every 2016 blocks (4 bytes per header),
> the timestamp can not be less than the median of the last 11 and is
> usually only a small amount over the last one (saves 2 bytes per
> header), the block version is usually one of the last few (save 3
> bytes per header).
>

 ... and I guess the nonce can be arbitrarily truncated as well, just brute
force the missing bits :-P.


> But all these things improvements are just a constant factor. I think
> you want the compact SPV proofs described in the appendix of the
> sidechains whitepaper which creates log scaling proofs.
>

I think that my blog post on compact spv proofs can be helpful also. It
tries to make the pretty compact formulations in the sidechains paper a bit
more graspable by normal people.

http://popeller.io/index.php/2016/09/15/compact-spv-proofs/

Kalle