delvingbitcoin

64 bit arithmetic soft fork

64 bit arithmetic soft fork

Original Postby Chris_Stewart_5

Posted on: January 23, 2024 16:23 UTC

A recent analysis of the impact on blockchain size from transitioning to 8-byte encodings for ScriptNums has been conducted, revealing a significant increase in storage requirements.

The proposed change, intended to modify the encoding within the Bitcoin blockchain, would expand the blockchain by approximately 1GB, which translates to a 0.17% size increase since the first block was mined. This data is derived from an examination of the local blockchain, currently occupying 576GB of space.

Further granularity into the proposal's effects can be seen through a set of transaction examples. Each example illustrates how the new encoding scheme would alter the size of individual transactions. Notably, these transactions exhibit varying increases in size, with one expanding by 25 bytes and others by smaller amounts, such as 18, 11, and 10 bytes. These specific transactions are accompanied by comments labeled "ASM," suggesting that they include script constants that contribute to the overall size increase.

To support the findings and provide transparency, a comprehensive JSON file has been generated, encompassing the calculations behind the increased sizes. Although substantial at 13GB, the file serves as a critical resource for validating the projected growth of the blockchain. Additionally, the source code instrumental in determining these JSON values is publicly available for review and further analysis at this GitHub repository.

Work is ongoing to assess the implications of the encoding change on the testnet3 environment, with updates to be incorporated as the results become available.