Bitcoin Inqusition 29.2

In a recent analysis of Bitcoin Inquisition, experiments were conducted using OP_CAT alongside CSFS and CTV to explore transaction behaviors and their implications on network dynamics. The experimentation involved tracking the timing from commitment to revelation and finally to confirmation across these protocols, providing insights into the nuanced mechanisms of Bitcoin transactions.

The experiment's data points for the CSFS pair include a commit hash of 96df453d9e9ce50fdfca063528b03e3310033c3a61818bbe30e7fab5c61133e3 and a reveal (final, RBF replacement) hash of 32fa307f3a570cfe93ebf7c101dba9ee8f289a5ca926dfed8baca92bb196e36b. For the CTV pair, the commit hash was 2378642548c7f86472d3998a0fcb2d364084783e487dd87c1e1020684aed51de, with the reveal hash noted as 9ccbce8ad87f0f94632119245a42537c9fbd2c8f706621f76f513339f220d55c. These identifiers were crucial for tracking and analyzing transaction behavior throughout the experiment.

A key learning from this study is the distinction between policy and consensus layers in relation to transaction visibility. It was observed that before a transaction is confirmed, its reveal spends may not appear in standard signet mempools due to policy restrictions. However, once mined, these transactions become visible on public explorers, indicating that a lack of visibility does not necessarily imply a network fork.

Another significant finding relates to the variability of confirmation latency. In the conducted experiments, the time from commit to reveal proved short, whereas the reveal to confirm phase dominated, extending up to approximately 3.9 days. This highlights the critical nature of the latter stage in the overall transaction timeline.

The experiments also delved into the impact of script constraints on transaction acceleration. For CSFS transactions, it was discovered that a higher-fee replacement reveal could be confirmed swiftly, approximately 113 seconds after the replacement broadcast. In contrast, CTV transactions faced more rigid parent template constraints, rendering direct replacement less viable. Instead, Child-Pays-for-Parent (CPFP) emerged as a practical method for accelerating these transactions.

Lastly, the methodology emphasized the importance of recording the reveal to confirm times rather than just transaction creation times. This approach is vital for capturing the most relevant and interesting transaction behaviors, offering deeper insights into the dynamics of Bitcoin transactions. The willingness to share raw RPC snapshots and watch logs further encourages comparative studies on miner policy behavior, promoting a broader understanding of these complex processes.