A long-running effort to increase the time in which data for bitcoin’s transaction blocks around the world has received an upgrade. Since bitcoin was released, an array of services or solutions have emerged to meet the needs of those using the digital currency. These include exchanges that allow bitcoin to be bought and sold for government-issued currencies; mining pools, which grew as miners sought to collectivize for greater profit; and new kinds of wallets that delivered better functionality and security.
But, some of the needs of the distributed network are not readily apparent to observers.
As Bitcoin Core developer Greg Maxwell puts it, the Bitcoin Relay Network, the brainchild of fellow Bitcoin Core contributor Matt Corallo, arose several years ago in response to a need to propagate bitcoin block data more quickly among miners, or those who process its transactions.
"A couple years ago as blocks started getting above 250k regularly we saw what looked like a rapid consolidation of miners towards the most popular pools. One of the reasons was smaller pools were experiencing high orphaning," Maxwell recalls.
He told CoinDesk: "It seemed like we were rapidly on a trend where only a single pool would exist." However, he said Corallo sprung into action, developing the original relay network and delivering what Maxwell called "radically improved block propagation speed".
The Bitcoin Relay Network ultimately materialized as a network of nodes positioned in China, Europe, North America, Russia and Southeast Asia. Each of the nodes sports a robust internet connection, and in theory acts as a railroad for block data. The data is compressed and then transmitted via the Transmission Control Protocol, or TCP.
That system has been described as bitcoin’s vascular or nervous system – a critical component to delivering information throughout the body. Now, an enhanced successor has been released. Enter FIBRE
Corallo […]
