((("bitcoin network", "simplified payment verification nodes", id="BNspvnodes08")))((("bitcoin nodes", "SPV nodes", id="BNospv08")))Not all nodes have the ability to store the full blockchain. Many bitcoin clients are designed to run on space- and power-constrained devices, such as smartphones, tablets, or embedded systems. For such devices, a _simplified payment verification_ (SPV) method is used to allow them to operate without storing the full blockchain. These types of clients are called SPV clients or lightweight clients. As bitcoin adoption surges, the SPV node is becoming the most common form of bitcoin node, especially for bitcoin wallets.
((("bitcoin network", "simplified payment verification nodes", id="BNspvnodes08")))((("bitcoin nodes", "SPV nodes", id="BNospv08")))((("simple-payment-verification (SPV)", id="simple08")))Not all nodes have the ability to store the full blockchain. Many bitcoin clients are designed to run on space- and power-constrained devices, such as smartphones, tablets, or embedded systems. For such devices, a _simplified payment verification_ (SPV) method is used to allow them to operate without storing the full blockchain. These types of clients are called SPV clients or lightweight clients. As bitcoin adoption surges, the SPV node is becoming the most common form of bitcoin node, especially for bitcoin wallets.
SPV nodes download only the block headers and do not download the transactions included in each block. The resulting chain of blocks, without transactions, is 1,000 times smaller than the full blockchain. SPV nodes cannot construct a full picture of all the UTXOs that are available for spending because they do not know about all the transactions on the network. SPV nodes verify transactions using a slightly different methodology that relies on peers to provide partial views of relevant parts of the blockchain on demand.
Because SPV nodes need to retrieve specific transactions in order to selectively verify them, they also create a privacy risk. Unlike full blockchain nodes, which collect all transactions within each block, the SPV node's requests for specific data can inadvertently reveal the addresses in their wallet. For example, a third party monitoring a network could keep track of all the transactions requested by a wallet on an SPV node and use those to associate bitcoin addresses with the user of that wallet, destroying the user's privacy.
Shortly after the introduction of SPV/lightweight nodes, the bitcoin developers added a feature called _bloom filters_ to address the privacy risks of SPV nodes. Bloom filters allow SPV nodes to receive a subset of the transactions without revealing precisely which addresses they are interested in, through a filtering mechanism that uses probabilities rather than fixed patterns.((("", startref="BNspvnodes08")))((("", startref="BNospv08")))
Shortly after the introduction of SPV/lightweight nodes, the bitcoin developers added a feature called _bloom filters_ to address the privacy risks of SPV nodes. Bloom filters allow SPV nodes to receive a subset of the transactions without revealing precisely which addresses they are interested in, through a filtering mechanism that uses probabilities rather than fixed patterns.((("", startref="BNspvnodes08")))((("", startref="BNospv08")))((("", startref="simple08")))
judymcconville@roadrunner.com
7 years ago