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From: Peter R <peter_r@gmx.com>
To: Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell@gmail.com>
Cc: Bitcoin Dev <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>,
	telemaco <telemaco@neomailbox.net>
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] [patch] Switching Bitcoin Core to sqlite db
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2015 17:45:03 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <6DAD1D38-A156-4507-B506-BF66F26E6594@gmx.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAAS2fgTLE1cpDqKTiy0r1VMex7zTAB8tgUC=Y0WXmbNBJL42xQ@mail.gmail.com>


> On Nov 14, 2015, at 5:08 PM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 1:02 AM, Peter R <peter_r@gmx.com> wrote:
>> Hi Greg,
>> 
>> Like you said, the issue with using more than one database technology is not that one node would prove that Block X is valid while the another node proves that Block X is NOT valid.  Instead, the problem is that one node might say “valid” while the other node says “I don’t know.”
> 
> Sometimes errors are such that you can catch them (if you're super
> vigilant and know an error is even possible in that case)-- and
> indeed, in that case you can get a "I don't know, something is
> wrong.", other times errors are undetectable.

Agreed.  There are two cases to consider:

Type 1.  One implementation says “yes” or “no,” while the other says “I don’t know”, and

Type 2.  One implementation says “yes” and the other says “no,” because of a bug.  

My previous email described how Type 1 consensus failures can be safely dealt with.  These include many kinds of database exceptions (e.g., the LevelDB fork at block #225,430), or consensus mismatches regarding the max size of a block.  

Type 2 consensus failures are more severe but also less likely (I’m not aware of a Type 2 consensus failure besides the 92 million bitcoin bug from August 2010).  If Core was to accept a rogue TX that created another 92 million bitcoins, I think it would be a good thing if the other implementations forked away from it (we don’t want bug-for-bug compatibility here).   

This once again reveals the benefits of multiple competing implementations.  

Sincerely,
Peter 






  reply	other threads:[~2015-11-15  1:45 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 36+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2015-10-29  6:57 [bitcoin-dev] [patch] Switching Bitcoin Core to sqlite db telemaco
2015-10-29  8:03 ` Luke Dashjr
2015-10-30  3:04   ` Simon Liu
2015-10-30  3:35     ` Gregory Maxwell
2015-10-30  4:04       ` Peter R
2015-10-30  4:28         ` Gregory Maxwell
2015-11-15  1:02           ` Peter R
2015-11-15  1:08             ` Gregory Maxwell
2015-11-15  1:45               ` Peter R [this message]
2015-11-15  2:10                 ` Gregory Maxwell
2015-11-15  2:58                   ` Peter R
2015-11-15  3:30                     ` Gregory Maxwell
2015-11-15  4:10                       ` Peter R
2015-11-15 10:12                         ` Jorge Timón
2015-11-15 11:28                           ` Jorge Timón
2015-11-15 15:48                             ` Peter R
2015-11-15 17:06                           ` Peter R
2015-11-17 13:54                             ` Tamas Blummer
2015-11-17 15:24                               ` Tom Harding
2015-11-17 22:17                                 ` telemaco
2015-11-20 14:15                                   ` Jorge Timón
2015-11-16  1:52                     ` Rusty Russell
2015-11-15  3:04             ` Luke Dashjr
2015-11-15  3:17               ` Peter R
2015-10-29  8:17 ` Gregory Maxwell
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2015-10-22 21:26 Jeff Garzik
2015-10-22 21:54 ` Patrick Strateman
2015-10-22 21:56 ` Joseph Gleason ⑈
2015-10-23  6:53 ` Jonas Schnelli
2015-10-23  7:45 ` Lucas Betschart
2015-10-28 20:28   ` Sean Lynch
2015-10-28 21:11     ` Jeff Garzik
2015-10-23 10:30 ` Tom Zander
2015-10-26 18:06   ` Douglas Roark
2015-10-28 15:52     ` Tom Zander
2015-11-18  0:06     ` Jonathan Wilkins

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