Getting in on the slow block demo on signet

I found this on Stacker News: So, BIP 54 is aiming to tackle some issues with Bitcoin transactions that can really slow down node validation times. A bunch of developers are putting together a demo to showcase what an attack like this could look like. You can actually join in, not just watch. You can connect your own node to their signet and see for yourself how long it takes to validate those tricky transactions. For those who don’t know, signet is a Bitcoin test network where blocks require a special signature from the network owners, plus proof of work. This setup helps ensure that signet blocks are found at consistent intervals while still letting you test various aspects of an open network. If you have a Bitcoin Core node, you can easily launch it on signet with a simple command. Antoine Ponsoit shared some tips on how to join the demo live. Not sure when this demo is happening, but I’m really looking forward to being part of it!

Thanks for posting this! For additional context, BIP 54 contains a number of important consensus-related bugfixes. It stands on the historical work of Matt Corallo's Great Consensus Cleanup*.  Antoine Poinsot took on the project as champion and has since modified and improved upon it in a few ways. An easily digestible summary of the changes can be found on the new informational website: https://bip54.org/ This event will test the "poison block" category of attack, whereby a malicious miner composes a block with transactions that take abnormally long times to validate. There was a test-run recently, which can be tracked in this thread: https://bnoc.xyz/t/slowish-blocks-on-signet/100/9 See you there! * https://gnusha.org/pi/bitcoindev/bf96c2fb-2e2e-a47f-e59f-87e56d83eca3@mattcorallo.com/

The poison block angle is interesting because it pokes at the part of Bitcoin people usually hand-wave as "nodes validate blocks," full stop. Sure, they do, but wall-clock time matters. If a valid block can be constructed in a way that makes honest nodes burn silly amounts of CPU before accepting it, that's not just an academic footnote. It affects block propagation, miner behavior, stale risk, node operators on modest hardware, and the general comfort blanket we all like to sleep under.