Lightweight clients: Suppose Bob runs an ultra lightweight client which receives the current head of the blockchain from a trusted source. This client has very limited memory and so it only permanently stores the most recent blockchain header (deleting any previous headers). If Alice wants to send a payment to Bob, what information should she include to prove that her payment to Bob has been included in the blockchain? Assume Alice’s payment was included in a block k blocks before the current head and there are n transactions per block. Estimate how many bytes this proof will require in terms of n and k and compute the proof size for k=8, n=256. One proposal is to add an extra field in each block header pointing to the last block which has a smaller hash value than the current block. Explain how this can be used to reduce the proof size from part (b). What is the expected size of a proof (in bytes) now in terms of n and k? To simplify your analysis, you may use asymptotic (Big O) notation. What are the best-case and worst-case sizes?

Database System Concepts
7th Edition
ISBN:9780078022159
Author:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan
Publisher:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan
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  1. Lightweight clients: Suppose Bob runs an ultra lightweight client which receives the current head of the blockchain from a trusted source. This client has very limited memory and so it only permanently stores the most recent blockchain header (deleting any previous headers).

    1. If Alice wants to send a payment to Bob, what information should she include to prove that her payment to Bob has been included in the blockchain?

    2. Assume Alice’s payment was included in a block k blocks before the current head and there are n transactions per block. Estimate how many bytes this proof will require in terms of n and k and compute the proof size for k=8, n=256.

    3. One proposal is to add an extra field in each block header pointing to the last block which has a smaller hash value than the current block. Explain how this can be used to reduce the proof size from part (b). What is the expected size of a proof (in bytes) now in terms of n and k? To simplify your analysis, you may use asymptotic (Big O) notation. What are the best-case and worst-case sizes?

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