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Ethereum: Configuring Bitcoin Core for Zero-Load Pruning

As you delve deeper into Bitcoin and Ethereum, it’s important to understand how they synchronize their blockchains and verify transactions without having to download the entire blockchain. In this article, we’ll cover the basics of configuring Bitcoin Core and learn how to prune the blockchain locally using code.

What is pruning?

Pruning is an optimization technique used in distributed systems like Ethereum to reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred between nodes (computers) or across the network. When pruning, we try to minimize the amount of redundant data, making transactions more efficient and faster.

Bitcoin Core Setup: A Quick Overview

To understand how Bitcoin Core configures the blockchain for pruning, let’s take a look at its architecture:

• Blockchain File: The entire blockchain is stored in a single file known as blockchain.dat.

• Block File: Each block has a corresponding file containing metadata and transaction information.

• Chain Reference Table (CRT): This table maps each block to the hash of the previous block, allowing for efficient lookups.

Prune Without Loading

We can use the following methods to prune the blockchain locally:

• Block File Index: We modify the blockchain.dat file to store a reference table that maps each block index to the corresponding file path.

• Chain Reference Table (CRT): Instead of using a CRT as described above, we will create a separate data structure for the purpose of pruning.

Code Implementation

Here is an example implementation in Python:

import hashlib
def get_block_index(block_hash):
"""Returns the index of a block given by its hash"""





Assume that the blockchain.dat file has the following format:

'block-index\tblock-hash'
lines = [line for line in open('blockchain.dat').readlines() if not line.startswith('#')]
blocks = {}
for i, line in enumerate(lines):
index, block_hash = line.strip().split('\t')
blocks[int(index)] = block_hash
return block.get(block_hash)
def prune_block(block_index):
"""Truncates the blockchain by removing redundant data"""

Load the blockchain file and create a lookup table
with open('blockchain.dat', 'r') as f:
lines = [line.strip() for line in f.readlines()]

Create an index map to store the hashes of each block
index_map = {}
for i, line in enumerate(lines):
if not line.startswith('#'):
block_str, index_str = line.split('\t')
block_str = block_str[:-1] 
Remove the newline character at the end
block_map[index_str] = block_str

Clean up the blockchain by removing redundant data
for block_index_str in sorted(blocks_str.keys()):
block_hash = blocks[block_index_str]
if index_map.get(block_hash) == block_hash:
del index_map[block_hash]

Write the updated blockchain file
with open('blockchain.dat', 'w') as f:
for line in lines:
if not line.startswith('#'):
_, block_hash = line.split('\t')
block_map[block_hash] = block_str + '\t' + str (block_index)
else:
f.write(line)

Usage example
block_index = get_block_index('your_block_hash_here')
prune_block(block_index)

Conclusion

In this article, we covered the basics of configuring Bitcoin Core for off-load pruning and implemented a basic example in Python. By understanding how to prune the blockchain locally, you can optimize performance and learn more about the inner workings of Ethereum.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions or need further clarification on any of the concepts discussed here!