Re: [Bitcoin-development] Proposed additional options for pruned nodes

[Tier Nolan <tier.nolan@gmail.com>]

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On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 6:19 AM, Daniel Kraft <d@domob.eu> wrote:

> 2) Divide the range of all blocks into intervals with exponentially
> growing size.  I. e., something like this:
>
> 1, 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 8, 8, 16, 16, ...
>

Interesting.  This can be combined with the system I suggested.

A node broadcasts 3 pieces of information

Seed (16 bits): This is the seed
M_bits_lsb (1 bit):  Used to indicate M during a transition
N (7 bits):  This is the count of the last range held (or partially held)

M = 1 << M_bits

M should be set to the lowest power of 2 greater than double the block
chain height

That gives M = 1 million at the moment.  During changing M, some nodes will
be using the higher M and others will use the lower M.

The M_bits_lsb field allows those to be distinguished.

As the block height approaches 512k, nodes can begin to upgrade.  For a
period around block 512k, some nodes could use M = 1 million and others
could use M = 2 million.

Assuming M is around 3 times higher than the block height, then the odds of
a start being less than the block height is around 35%.  If they runs by
25% each step, then that is approx a double for each hit.

Size(n) = ((4 + (n & 0x3)) << (n >> 2)) * 2.5MB

This gives an exponential increase, but groups of 4 are linearly
interpolated.


*Size(0) = 10 MB*
Size(1) = 12.5MB
Size(2) = 15 MB
Size(3) = 17.5MB
Size(4) = 20MB

*Size(5) = 25MB*
Size(6) = 30MB
Size(7) = 35MB

*Size(8) = 40MB*

Start(n) = Hash(seed + n) mod M

A node should store as much of its last start as possible.  Assuming start
0, 5, and 8 were "hits" but the node had a max size of 60MB.  It can store
0 and 5 and have 25MB left.  That isn't enough to store all of run 8, but
it should store 25MB of the blocks in run 8 anyway.

Size(255) = pow(2, 31) * 17.5MB = 35,840 TB

Decreasing N only causes previously accepted runs to be invalidated.

When a node approaches a transition point for N, it would select a block
height within 25,000 of the transition point.  Once it reaches that block,
it will begin downloading the new runs that it needs.  When updating, it
can set N to zero.  This spreads out the upgrade (over around a year), with
only a small number of nodes upgrading at any time.

New nodes should use the higher M, if near a transition point (say within
100,000).

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