Re: [Bitcoin-development] BIP proposal: Authenticated prefix trees

[Mark Friedenbach <mark@monetize.io>]

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On 01/06/2014 10:13 AM, Peter Todd wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 05, 2014 at 07:43:58PM +0100, Thomas Voegtlin wrote:
>> I have written a Python-levelDB implementation of this UTXO
>> hashtree, which is currently being tested, and will be added to
>> Electrum servers.
> 
> Along the lines of my recent post on blockchain data:
> 
> Is it going to be possible to do partial prefix queries on that
> tree?

There's really two tree structures being talked about here. Correct me
if I'm wrong Thomas, but last time I looked at your code it was still
implementing a 256-way PATRICIA trie, correct? This structure lends
itself to indexing either scriptPubKey or H(scriptPubKey) with
approximately the same performance characteristics, and in the
"Ultimate blockchain compression" thread there is much debate about
which to use.

In the process of experimentation I've since moved from a 256-way
PATRICIA trie to a bitwise, non-level-compressed trie structure - what
I call proof-updatable trees in the BIP. These have the advantage of
allowing stateless application of one proof to another, and as
consequence enable mining & mempool operations without access to the
UTXO set, so long as proofs are initially provided in the transaction
& block wire format.

The "disadvantage" is that performance is closely tied to key length,
making H(scriptPubKey) the much more desirable option. I'm sure you
see that as an advantage, however :)

> Also have you considered creating per-block indexes of all 
> scriptPubKeys, spent or unspent, queryable via the same partial
> prefix method?

This would be quite easy to do, separate from the UTXO structure but
using the same trie format.
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