Stats on orphanage overflows

The recent analysis of network activity has highlighted a significant and surprising volume of transaction removals across all nodes, with a particular focus on the data from node alice on September 14, 2024. On this day, the system registered instances of removing upwards of 100,000 orphan transactions per minute, suggesting an abnormal influx of these orphans which might indicate a deliberate attempt to flood the network. This strategy appears to be effective in purging the orphanage of transactions received from other peers, thereby clearing a substantial backlog.

Further scrutiny revealed that over 99% of these removed transactions carried a weight of either 501 WU (Weight Units) or 502 WU, closely aligning with characteristics observed in a specific transaction associated with runestone mints, indicating a potential relation to this particular type of activity. Upon a deeper investigation into the transactions' origins, it was discovered that these were, in fact, solicited transactions. The examination of system logs for transaction requests uncovered over 10 million lines containing Requesting tx, signifying a massive volume of transaction solicitations.

A comprehensive review of the node's activity on the aforementioned date concluded that approximately 200,000 unique transaction identifiers (txids) were requested with the Requesting tx flag. This indicates a scenario where the node not only received a vast number of orphan transactions but also repeatedly re-requested them, suggesting a lapse in the system's management of these transactions leading to inefficiencies in handling orphans. This situation underscores the need for improved mechanisms to manage and mitigate the impact of such anomalies on the network's performance.