Data Model¶

The BTC-Relay, as opposed to Bitcoin SPV clients, only stores a subset of information contained in block headers and does not store transactions. Specifically, only data that is absolutely necessary to perform correct verification of block headers and transaction inclusion is stored.

Note that the structs used to represent bitcoin transactions and blocks is slightly different from the Bitcoin Data Model. For example, no tx_in count is required, since this information is implicitly stored in the vector of inputs.

Types¶

RawBlockHeader¶

An 80 bytes long Bitcoin blockchain header, according to the format as specified by the Bitcoin reference.

Constants¶

DIFFICULTY_ADJUSTMENT_INTERVAL¶

The interval in number of blocks at which Bitcoin adjusts its difficulty (approx. every 2 weeks = 2016 blocks).

TARGET_TIMESPAN¶

Expected duration of the different adjustment interval in seconds, 1209600 seconds (two weeks) in the case of Bitcoin.

TARGET_TIMESPAN_DIVISOR¶

Auxiliary constant used in Bitcoin’s difficulty re-target mechanism.

UNROUNDED_MAX_TARGET¶

The maximum difficulty target, \(2^{224}-1\) in the case of Bitcoin. For more information, see the Bitcoin Wiki.

MAIN_CHAIN_ID¶

Identifier of the Bitcoin main chain tracked in the ChainsIndex mapping. At any point in time, the BlockChain with this identifier is considered to be the main chain and will be used to transaction inclusion verification.

STABLE_BITCOIN_CONFIRMATIONS¶

Global security parameter (typically referred to as k in scientific literature), determining the umber of confirmations (in blocks) necessary for a transaction to be considered “stable” in Bitcoin. Stable thereby means that the probability of the transaction being excluded from the blockchain due to a fork is negligible.

STABLE_PARACHAIN_CONFIRMATIONS¶

Global security parameter (typically referred to as k in scientific literature), determining the umber of confirmations (in blocks) necessary for a transaction to be considered “stable” in the BTC Parachain. Stable thereby means that the probability of the transaction being excluded from the blockchain due to a fork is negligible.

Note

We use this to enforce a minimum delay on Bitcoin block header acceptance in the BTC-Parachain in cases where a (large) number of block headers are submitted as a batch.

Structs¶

BlockHeader¶

Representation of a Bitcoin block header, constructed by the parachain from the RawBlockHeader. The main differences compared to the Block Headers in Bitcoin Data Model is that this contains the unpacked target constructed from nBits, and an additional hash of the BlockHeader for convenience.

Note

Fields marked as [Optional] are not critical for the secure operation of BTC-Relay, but can be stored anyway, at the developers discretion. We omit these fields in the rest of this specification.

Parameter	Type	Description
`merkleRoot`	H256Le	Root of the Merkle tree referencing transactions included in the block.
`target`	u256	Difficulty target of this block (converted from `nBits`, see Bitcoin documentation.).
`timestamp`	timestamp	UNIX timestamp indicating when this block was mined in Bitcoin.
`hashPrevBlock`	H256Le	Block hash of the predecessor of this block.
`hash`	H256Le	Block hash of of this block.
.	.	.
`version`	i32	[Optional] Version of the submitted block.
`nonce`	u32	[Optional] Nonce used to solve the PoW of this block.

RichBlockHeader¶

Representation of a Bitcoin block header containing additional metadata. This struct is used to store Bitcoin block headers.

Parameter	Type	Description
`blockHeight`	u32	Height of this block in the Bitcoin main chain.
`chainRef`	u32	Pointer to the `BlockChain` struct in which this block header is contained.
`blockHeader`	BlockHeader	Associated parsed `BlockHeader` struct.
`paraHeight`	u32	The `activeBlockCount` at the time the block header was submitted to the relay. See the security pallet for more information.

BlockChain¶

Representation of a Bitcoin blockchain / fork.

Parameter	Type	Description
`chainId`	u32	Unique identifier for faster lookup in `ChainsIndex`
`startHeight`	u32	Lowest block number in this chain. Used to determine the forking point during chain reorganizations.
`maxHeight`	u32	Max. block height in this chain.

Transaction¶

Representation of a Bitcoin Transaction. It differs from the one specified in Bitcoin Data Model in that it does not contain in lengths of the input and output vectors, because this data is implicit in the vector. Furthermore, we use different types for the inputs and outputs. The segregated witnesses and flags, if any, are placed inside the inputs.

Parameter	Type	Description
`version`	i32	Transaction version number.
`inputs`	Vec<TransactionInput>	Vector of transaction inputs.
`output`	Vec<TransactionOutput>	Vector of transaction inputs.
`lockTime`	LockTime	A Unix timestamp OR block number.

TransactionInput¶

Representation of a Bitcoin transaction input. It differs from the one specified in Bitcoin Data Model in that it contains flags and the segregated witnesses. Furthermore, it contains dedicated fields for coinbase transactions.

Parameter	Type	Description
`previousHash`	H256Le,	The hash of the transaction to spend from.
`previousIndex`	u32,	The index of the output within the transaction pointed to by `previousHash` to spend from.
`coinbase`	bool,	True if the transaction input is the newly mined funds.
`height`	Option<u32>,	An optional blockheight used in the coinbase transaction. See https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0034.mediawiki
`script`	Vec<u8>,	The script satisfying the output’s script.
`sequence`	u32,	Sequence number (default `0xffffffff`).
`flags`	u8,	The flags set in `Transaction` that indicates a Segrated Witness transaction. If none were set in the transaction, this value is 0.
`witness`	Vec<Vec<u8>>,	The witness scripts of the transaction. See See https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0141.mediawiki

TransactionOutput¶

Representation if a Bitcoin transaction output

Parameter	Type	Description
`value`	i64,	The number of satoshis to transfer to this output.
`script`	Script	The spending condition of the output.

Script¶

Representation if a Bitcoin transaction output

Parameter	Type	Description
`bytes`	Vec<u8>,	The spending condition of the output.

Enums¶

LockTime¶

Represents either a unix timestamp OR a blocknumber. See the Bitcoin source.

Discriminant	Description
`Time(u32)`	Lock time interpreted as a unix timestamp.
`BlockHeight(u32)`	Lock time interpreted as a block number.

Data Structures¶

BlockHeaders¶

Mapping of <blockHash, RichBlockHeader>, storing all verified Bitcoin block headers (fork and main chain) submitted to BTC-Relay.

Chains¶

Level of indirection over ChainsIndex, i.e. the values stored in this map are keys of ChainsIndex. Chains[0] MUST always be 0, such that ChainsIndex[Chains[0]] is the bitcoin main chain. The remaining items MUST sort the chains by height, i.e. it MUST hold that for each 0 < i < j, ChainsIndex[Chains[i]].maxHeight >= ChainsIndex[Chains[j]].maxHeight. Furthermore, keys MUST be consecutive, i.e. for each i, if Chains[i] does not exist, Chains[i+1] MUST NOT exist either.

Note

The assumption for Chains is that, in the majority of cases, block headers will be appended to the main chain (longest chain), i.e., the BlockChain entry at the most significant position in the queue/heap. Similarly, transaction inclusion proofs (verifyTransactionInclusion) are only checked against the main chain. This means, in the average case lookup complexity will be O(1). Furthermore, block headers can only be appended if they (i) have a valid PoW and (ii) do not yet exist in BlockHeaders - hence, spamming is very costly and unlikely. Finally, blockchain forks and re-organizations occur infrequently, especially in Bitcoin. In principle, optimizing lookup costs should be prioritized, ideally O(1), while inserting of new items and re-balancing can even be O(n).

ChainsIndex¶

The main storage map of BlockChain structs, indexed by a values from the Chains. ChainsIndex[0] MUST always contain the main chain.

BestBlock¶

32 byte Bitcoin block hash (double SHA256) identifying the current blockchain tip, i.e., the RichBlockHeader with the highest blockHeight in the BlockChain entry, which has the most significant height in the Chains priority queue (topmost position).

Note

Bitcoin uses SHA256 (32 bytes) for its block hashes, transaction identifiers and Merkle trees. In Substrate, we hence use H256 to represent these hashes.

BestBlockHeight¶

Integer representing the maximum block height (height) in the Chains priority queue. This is also the blockHeight of the RichBlockHeader entry pointed to by BestBlock.

ChainCounter¶

Integer increment-only counter used to track existing BlockChain entries. Initialized with 1 (0 is reserved for MAIN_CHAIN_ID).