IBD Performance Milestones in Bitcoin Core Releases

Bitcoin Core 0.3.2: Checkpoints: Hardcoded block hashes at specific heights to speed up synchronization by skipping validation of blocks before the checkpoint.
Bitcoin Core 0.5.0: Skip Verification of Checkpointed Signatures: Further optimization by skipping signature verification for blocks before checkpoints.
Bitcoin Core 0.8.0: LevelDB & Parallel Signature Validation: Replaced BerkeleyDB with LevelDB for better performance and implemented parallel signature validation.
Bitcoin Core 0.10.0: Headers-First Sync: Downloads and validates lightweight block headers (80 bytes each) before full blocks, allowing parallel block downloads and protection against fake chains.
Bitcoin Core 0.12.0: Switch to libsecp256k1: Replaced OpenSSL with custom-built libsecp256k1 library for signature verification, providing 5-7x speedup in this CPU-intensive operation.
Bitcoin Core 0.14.0: AssumeValid: Allows nodes to skip signature verification for blocks before a trusted block hash, reducing IBD time by ~75% compared to previous versions.
Bitcoin Core 0.26.0: AssumeUTXO: Will allow nodes to bootstrap from a trusted UTXO set snapshot, enabling immediate transaction verification without waiting for full chain download.
UTREEXO (Future): Will optimize Bitcoin's storage by using cryptographic accumulators (Merkle trees) to validate transactions without storing the entire UTXO set.

Find a complete tutorial series of bitcoin technical concepts at https://bitcoindevs.xyz/decoding/welcome

I have heard claims that libbitcoin can sync a node in less than 1hr. It appears to be limited only by the internet bandwidth of the node running IBD.

If true, how is that possible? And why is bitcoin-core so slow and relying on skipping validation all together to "improve performance"?

Edit: looks like libbitcoin uses multiple async threads to verify ranges of blocks at once https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/libbitcoin-for-core-people/1222

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby 18h

Yeah, my understanding is that Core and libbitcoin do verification differently. Voskuil goes into quite a bit of detail about the differences on Vlad's recent podcast.

113 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 23h

So most recent improvements to IBD times are based on "just trust me, bro." That doesn't seem great.

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @gregtonoski 20h

Indeed, peak clown marketing. Let's call that bullshit out. The y axis is duration so degradation instead of improvement of performance.

327 sats \ 1 reply \ @justin_shocknet 23h

UTREEXO is not block download, it's a different thing with different trade-offs

Actually neither of the assumes are either, you're just skipping validation... this graph is nonsense beyond .12

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby 18h

100%

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 23h

This formatting is god-tier

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @OtamokanIshotas 19h outlawed

stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @gregtonoski 20h

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