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-rw-r--r--doc/release-notes.md23
-rw-r--r--doc/release-process.md5
2 files changed, 27 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/doc/release-notes.md b/doc/release-notes.md
index 7d0d689684..cb3f7934ce 100644
--- a/doc/release-notes.md
+++ b/doc/release-notes.md
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ Low-level RPC changes
than two arguments.
Removal of Priority Estimation
-------------------------------
+-------------------------------
- Estimation of "priority" needed for a transaction to be included within a target
number of blocks has been removed. The rpc calls are deprecated and will either
@@ -71,6 +71,27 @@ P2P connection management
- New connections to manually added peers are much faster.
+Introduction of assumed-valid blocks
+-------------------------------------
+
+- A significant portion of the initial block download time is spent verifying
+ scripts/signatures. Although the verification must pass to ensure the security
+ of the system, no other result from this verification is needed: If the node
+ knew the history of a given block were valid it could skip checking scripts
+ for its ancestors.
+
+- A new configuration option 'assumevalid' is provided to express this knowledge
+ to the software. Unlike the 'checkpoints' in the past this setting does not
+ force the use of a particular chain: chains that are consistent with it are
+ processed quicker, but other chains are still accepted if they'd otherwise
+ be chosen as best. Also unlike 'checkpoints' the user can configure which
+ block history is assumed true, this means that even outdated software can
+ sync more quickly if the setting is updated by the user.
+
+- Because the validity of a chain history is a simple objective fact it is much
+ easier to review this setting. As a result the software ships with a default
+ value adjusted to match the current chain shortly before release. The use
+ of this default value can be disabled by setting -assumevalid=0
0.14.0 Change log
=================
diff --git a/doc/release-process.md b/doc/release-process.md
index 61f05b0771..399ed25c91 100644
--- a/doc/release-process.md
+++ b/doc/release-process.md
@@ -13,6 +13,11 @@ Before every minor and major release:
* Update version in sources (see below)
* Write release notes (see below)
* Update `src/chainparams.cpp` nMinimumChainWork with information from the getblockchaininfo rpc.
+* Update `src/chainparams.cpp` defaultAssumeValid with information from the getblockhash rpc.
+ - The selected value must not be orphaned so it may be useful to set the value two blocks back from the tip.
+ - Testnet should be set some tens of thousands back from the tip due to reorgs there.
+ - This update should be reviewed with a reindex-chainstate with assumevalid=0 to catch any defect
+ that causes rejection of blocks in the past history.
Before every major release: