I'm all for funding of Bitcoin development, but I suggest talking to Gavin to find out what efforts would be the biggest win right now. I don't see why separating wallet code from the main Bitcoin process would increase node count, as the cost of running the node is almost all in keeping up with transaction traffic and time spent in the wallet is likely to dominate only for large merchants or exchanges.

That said, you can already do this today - just run an SPV wallet like bitcoinj connected to your personal node. The wallet code in bitcoind won't be used for anything.

There are lots of things that can be done, but the best way to approach this is to get tightly written technical requirements from people in the know, and then contract with developers. Bounty style development has the risk of uncoordinated development that duplicates work and puts pressure on Gavin or other maintainers to accept shoddy code due to the "first past the post" winning criteria. Finding developers you trust and contracting with them for well specified improvements minimises risk for everyone.


On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 3:02 AM, <bitcoingrant@gmx.com> wrote:
One of the primary upcoming priorities for bitcoin’s infrastructure, beyond the bloom filter, will be the continued modularization of the system.

Here at the Bitcoin Grant, we would like to jump start this development with a financial incentive and initiate an ongoing conversation on how we can work together towards developing a smarter, more efficient system of tomorrow, today.

Up for grabs: 500 bitcoins or $500,000; whichever is greater.

Taking on a project of this scope is a highly intensive, technical undertaking and we believe excellent developers should be compensated as such, especially when it comes to open source projects.

One of the main goals will be to separate the wallet from the node, as we have already done with mining. This way, the wallet, which will only hold private keys and create transactions, would pass transactions directly to a relay node, based on the bloom filter. Meanwhile, the block node will maintain the block chain and validate and relay new blocks.

Such developments would significantly strengthen the system. Modularization would make cancer attacks less likely and increase the node count, which, currently, is fairly low.

This is by no means is a feature request, merely ideas as to initiate a discussion. We welcome any feedback or suggestions. And of course, let us know if you would like to contribute to this project by submiting a grant proposal.

http://bitcoingrant.org

 


 
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