The post SPV: It’s simple, really – CoinGeek appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Simplified Payment Verification in Bitcoin In the history of Bitcoin’s development, few concepts have sparked as much debate and controversy as the definition of a “node” and the existence of Simplified Payment Verification (SPV). Introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto in the original Bitcoin white paper, SPV was envisioned as a way to enable lightweight clients—those that don’t require downloading the entire blockchain—to verify transactions with a high degree of confidence. This is especially applicable to relatively small retail payments where things like insurance already exist because of a certain level of assumed fraud in credit card and cash sales. In theory, SPV was meant to allow users to interact with the Bitcoin network without the need to run a “full node,” thus lowering the barrier to entry and making Bitcoin more accessible. However, the implementation of SPV in BTC Core, the dominant software client for the BTC network, has been anything but straightforward. The debate over the necessity of running a full node versus relying on an SPV wallet has divided the Bitcoin community, with notable figures like Luke Dashjr—one of the Core developers—voicing strong opinions on the matter. SPV doesn’t exist — Luke Dashjr (@LukeDashjr) August 18, 2024 Dashjr argues that SPV compromises the security and decentralization of the network. This view reflects a broader sentiment among BTC Core developers that SPV is inherently flawed and that users should run full nodes to fully participate in the network. It should be noted that Dashjr is an extremist on the small blocker side, arguing that the block size limit should actually be lowered so more people can download and validate the whole blockchain without proof of work (PoW). So he hasn’t learned anything since 2016 Bitcoin only works at all if a super majority use their own nodes. If that’s not…

---

Filed under: News - @ August 20, 2024 11:24 am