The peer-to-peer protocol
How nodes find each other and what they say: the version handshake and service bits, address gossip, headers-first sync, compact blocks (BIP 152), Erlay, and the attacks on all of it.
142 threads and 1,204 messages, 13 Jun 2011 to 15 Oct 2026.
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BIPs
Bitcoin Optech
The threads, in order
Listed by the date of each thread's first message.
2011 6 threads
- Bootstrapping via BitTorrent trackers Christian Decker10 messages
- Protocol versioning Jeff Garzik3 messages
- DNS seeds returning gone peers Mike Hearn15 messages
- Adding a pong message to the protocol Mike Hearn3 messages
- Lock protocol version numbers Amir Taaki17 messages
- BIP 14 - Protocol Version and User Agent Amir Taaki5 messages
2012 11 threads
- 6 messages
- CAddrMan: Stochastic IP address manager Pieter Wuille13 messages
- Adding a pong message Mike Hearn4 messages
- BIP 31 Mike Hearn3 messages
- 4 messages
- New P2P commands for diagnostics, SPV clients Jeff Garzik21 messages
- 11 messages
- pynode: Simple bitcoin P2P node Jeff Garzik1 message
- BIP 35: add mempool message Jeff Garzik13 messages
- Segmented Block Relaying BIP draft. Matthew Mitchell7 messages
- Segmented Block Relaying BIP draft. Matthew Mitchell12 messages
2013 17 threads
- Testnet DNS seed Peter Todd5 messages
- A bitcoin UDP P2P protocol extension Jeff Garzik11 messages
- Service bits for pruned nodes Pieter Wuille34 messages
- 2 messages
- 28 messages
- 1 message
- P2P non-blockchain message proposal John Dillon1 message
- Missing fRelayTxes in version message Turkey Breast12 messages
- BitMail - p2p Email 0.1. beta Randolph D.9 messages
- BitMail.sf.net - encrypted p2p email Randolph D.5 messages
- NODE_BLOOM BIP Peter Todd5 messages
- Feedback requested: "reject" p2p message Gavin Andresen27 messages
- High-speed Bitcoin Relay Network Matt Corallo10 messages
- On the optimal block size and why transaction fees are 8 times too low (or transactions 8 times too big) Michael Gronager8 messages
- 9 messages
- Peer Discovery and Overlay Jeremy Spilman5 messages
- New P2P microblogging project based on Bitcoin Miguel Freitas1 message
2014 15 threads
- 6 messages
- please check my debug.log Eugen Leitl2 messages
- DNS seeds unstable Andreas Schildbach36 messages
- 18 messages
- NODE_BLOOM service bit Peter Todd20 messages
- 9 messages
- Policy for DNS seeds Wladimir J. van der Laan5 messages
- 21 messages
- Outbound connections rotation Ivan Pustogarov20 messages
- Add rotation of outbound connections (#4723) Ivan Pustogarov1 message
- Decreasing block propagation time Rebroad (sourceforge)2 messages
- 10 messages
- Deanonymisation of clients in Bitcoin P2P network paper Jean-Paul Kogelman18 messages
- BitCoin TPB, P2P Currency/Torrent Tiago Docilio Caldeira2 messages
- Cartographer Mike Hearn8 messages
2015 20 threads
- 43 messages
- P2P tests: peers.dat's requested Ethan Heilman1 message
- What's what with addr relaying? Thy Shizzle2 messages
- Useless Address attack? Thy Shizzle4 messages
- Testnet3 Thy Shizzle2 messages
- Research on partitioning Bitcoind nodes: "Eclipse Attacks on Bitcoin’s Peer-to-Peer Network" Ethan Heilman1 message
- 10 messages
- No Bitcoin For You Tom Harding13 messages
- Zero-Conf for Full Node Discovery Jim Phillips12 messages
- Bitcoin Core 0.11.0 released Wladimir J. van der Laan4 messages
- Idea: Efficient bitcoin block propagation Arnoud Kouwenhoven - Pukaki Corp14 messages
- If you had a single chance to double the transactions/second Bitcoin allows... Sergio Demian Lerner11 messages
- Will there be a freeze of the current protocol version? Oliver Egginger2 messages
- Revisiting NODE_BLOOM: Proposed BIP Matt Corallo30 messages
- Variable Block Size Proposal Justin M. Wray4 messages
- 1 message
- Weak block thoughts... Gavin Andresen18 messages
- Torrent-style new-block propagation on Merkle trees Jonathan Toomim3 messages
- New "sendheaders" p2p message Suhas Daftuar6 messages
- request to use service bit 28 for testing Peter Tschipper2 messages
2016 10 threads
- 5 messages
- New "feefilter" p2p message Alex Morcos5 messages
- INV overhead and batched INVs to reduce full node traffic Jonathan Toomim4 messages
- Services bit for xthin blocks G. Andrew Stone10 messages
- p2p authentication and encryption BIPs Jonas Schnelli23 messages
- BIP144: use of 1<<3 service bit Johnson Lau1 message
- Compact Block Relay BIP Matt Corallo23 messages
- 1 message
- New BIP: Low S values signatures Johnson Lau5 messages
- 15 messages
2017 9 threads
- BIP151 protocol incompatibility Eric Voskuil13 messages
- Issolated Bitcoin Nodes Juan Garavaglia7 messages
- Bandwidth limits and LN w/ node relay network topography praxeology_guy2 messages
- Segregated witness p2p layer compatibility Suhas Daftuar3 messages
- BIP proposal: NODE_NETWORK_LIMITED service bits Jonas Schnelli7 messages
- 11 messages
- BIP149 timeout-- why so far in the future? Martijn Meijering2 messages
- BIP148 temporary service bit (1 << 27) Luke Dashjr3 messages
- BIP159 - NODE_NETWORK_LIMITED service bits, extendability Sjors Provoost4 messages
2018 4 threads
- Low-bandwidth transaction relay Gleb Naumenko5 messages
- 9 messages
- Overhauled BIP151 Jonas Schnelli6 messages
- On the initial notice of CVE-2018-17144 Bryan Bishop3 messages
2019 7 threads
- BIP proposal - addrv2 message Wladimir J. van der Laan3 messages
- 22 messages
- 5 messages
- Bandwidth-Efficient Transaction Relay for Bitcoin Gleb Naumenko1 message
- 31 messages
- 2 messages
- Signaling support for addr relay (revision #1) Gleb Naumenko2 messages
2020 3 threads
- A proposal for WTXID-based transaction relay Suhas Daftuar1 message
- 30 messages
- 1 message
2021 5 threads
- Proposal for new "disabletx" p2p message Suhas Daftuar11 messages
- Proposed Improvements To addr Relay Amiti Uttarwar1 message
- 1 message
- death to the mempool, long live the mempool lisa neigut14 messages
- 10 messages
2022 13 threads
- 2 messages
- 6 messages
- Taro: A Taproot Asset Representation Overlay Olaoluwa Osuntokun18 messages
- Package Relay Proposal Gloria Zhao19 messages
- Packaged Transaction Relay Eric Voskuil16 messages
- BGP hijacking on Bitcoin p2p network alicexbt3 messages
- 3 messages
- addr/getaddr behaviour Amir Taaki1 message
- 2 messages
- P2P trading replacement transactions alicexbt5 messages
- Refreshed BIP324 Dhruv M22 messages
- 1 message
- 3 messages
2023 9 threads
- 10 messages
- 3 messages
- 3 messages
- Stake Certificates and Web-of-Stakes: privacy-preserving proving UTXOs attributes in P2P systems Antoine Riard1 message
- Bitcoin Transaction Relay over Nostr Joost Jager6 messages
- Bitcoin Core 25.0 released Michael Ford2 messages
- Bitcoin Core 25.1 released Michael Ford2 messages
- 2 messages
- 5 messages
2024 1 thread
- 3 messages
2025 7 threads
- Update on Transaction Relay V2 Antoine Riard1 message
- 8 messages
- 16 messages
- 4 messages
- Mempool Validation and Relay Policies via User-Defined Scripts] Andrew Poelstra6 messages
- 1 message
- 3 messages
2026 5 threads
- BIP Idea: incrementalrelayfee in feefilter? Matthew Husák3 messages
- New bitcoin backbone code release: BIP152, outbound tx support + libbitcoinkernel API feedbacks Antoine Riard1 message
- 1 message
- A Post-Quantum Path for BIP 324 Olaoluwa Osuntokun8 messages
- P2P UTXO Set Sharing Fabian30 messages