Sounds like this part of Bitcoin (block sharing) would definitely benefit from having a REST (HTTP) API.
REST-based web APIs are a common feature of most online services these days. Makes writing other client services so much easier. Plus you get the benefit of the HTTP ecosystem for free (HTTP caches, etc). - Brenton Camac On Apr 30, 2013, at 1:04 PM, Jeff Garzik <jgar...@exmulti.com> wrote: > On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 12:14 PM, Rebroad (sourceforge) > <rebroad+sourceforge....@gmail.com> wrote: >> As part of a roadmap for block downloading, I think this may be a good time >> to look into providing an HTTP/HTTPS protocol for block downloading - this >> would also allow web proxies to cache blocks and thus make it more >> accessible, as well as cater for resumeable downloads. > > Speaking generally, I've always been a supporter of finding new and > creative ways to store and transmit blocks. The more diversity, the > less likely bitcoin can be shut down worldwide. > > HTTP is fine, but you run into many issues with large files. You > would need a very well defined HTTP-retrievable layout, with proper > HTTP headers along the entire path, if you want web caches to function > properly. You need HTTP byte range support, HTTP 1.1 keep-alives, and > other features for resuming large, interrupted downloads. > > The format currently used by bitcoind would be just fine -- > blocks/blkNNNN.dat for raw data, size-limited well below 1GB. Just > need to add a small metadata download, and serve the raw block files. > > -- > Jeff Garzik > exMULTI, Inc. > jgar...@exmulti.com > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Introducing AppDynamics Lite, a free troubleshooting tool for Java/.NET > Get 100% visibility into your production application - at no cost. > Code-level diagnostics for performance bottlenecks with <2% overhead > Download for free and get started troubleshooting in minutes. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_ap1 > _______________________________________________ > Bitcoin-development mailing list > Bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Introducing AppDynamics Lite, a free troubleshooting tool for Java/.NET Get 100% visibility into your production application - at no cost. Code-level diagnostics for performance bottlenecks with <2% overhead Download for free and get started troubleshooting in minutes. http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_ap1 _______________________________________________ Bitcoin-development mailing list Bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development
