Blockchain Protocol Development: Mining a block

Overview

This project involves the simulation of mining process of a block, which includes validating and including transactions from a given set of transactions. The repository contains a folder mempool which contains JSON files. These files represent individual transactions. The goal is to successfully mine a block by including some of these transactions, following the specific requirements outlined below.

Note

It only required to do basic validation checks. Signature validation may be included.

Objective

The primary objective is to write a script that processes a series of transactions, validates them, and then mines them into a block. The output of the script is a file named out.txt that follows a specific format.

The solution is written in the following language:

• javascript: For unit tests
• rust: The implementation

Requirements

Input

• The folder named mempool contains several JSON files. Each file represents a transaction that includes all necessary information regarding the transaction.

Output

The script generates an output file named out.txt with the following structure:

• First line: The block header.
• Second line: The serialized coinbase transaction.
• Following lines: The transaction IDs (txids) of the transactions mined in the block, in order. The first txid should be that of the coinbase transaction

Difficulty Target

The difficulty target is 0000ffff00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000. This is the value that the block hash must be less than for the block to be successfully mined.

Execution

To test the solution locally:

• Uncomment the lines in run.sh.
• Execute local.sh.

If the code works, you will see the test completed successfully.

Plagiarism Policy

The solution has been devised by reviewing the documentation of Bitcoin as specified by popular sources like Learn bitcoin and under the guide of the Rust-for-bitcoiner camp organized by Chaincode labs. The solution was developed by learning these resources. Attempts were made to avoid plagiarizing online contents except for learning and improvement purposes.

AI Usage Disclaimer

I used AI tools like ChatGPT/Copilot to gather information and explore alternative approaches, but didn't rely on AI for any complete solutions. Verified andd validate any insights obtained and maintained a balance between AI assistance and independent problem-solving.