{"id":10971,"date":"2023-04-04T12:21:11","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T12:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/?p=10971"},"modified":"2022-05-17T23:41:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T23:41:06","slug":"what-is-utreexo-and-what-is-it-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-utreexo-and-what-is-it-for","title":{"rendered":"What is UTreeXO and what is it for?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-transparent ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Alternar tabla de contenidos\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-utreexo-and-what-is-it-for\/#what_problem_does_utreexo_solve\" >What problem does UTreeXO solve?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-utreexo-and-what-is-it-for\/#what_are_your_objectives\" >What are your objectives?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-utreexo-and-what-is-it-for\/#how_does_utreexo_work\" >How does UTreeXo work?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-utreexo-and-what-is-it-for\/#scaling_solution\" >Scaling solution<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-utreexo-and-what-is-it-for\/#advantages_and_disadvantages_of_utreexo\" >Advantages and disadvantages of UTreeXo<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-utreexo-and-what-is-it-for\/#advantages\" >Advantages<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-utreexo-and-what-is-it-for\/#disadvantages\" >Disadvantages<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Tiempo de lectura:<\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 4<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutos<\/span><\/span><p>If you are a Bitcoin user you may have heard of\u00a0<strong>Utretxo<\/strong>, a scalability improvement in Bitcoin. All this operation is carried out with the aim of significantly reducing the number of\u00a0<strong>cryptographic proofs<\/strong>\u00a0to represent a state of the blockchain and its different UTXOs in it.<\/p>\n<p>Among the capabilities of this enhancement is to drastically\u00a0<strong>reduce the storage needed<\/strong>\u00a0to represent the overall state of Bitcoin UTXOs. In other words, thanks to this improvement there would be nodes that would\u00a0<strong>occupy less storage<\/strong>\u00a0space in addition to networks with the ability to synchronize faster and with<strong>\u00a0greater security.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"is-divider divider clearfix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"is-divider divider clearfix\"><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"what_problem_does_utreexo_solve\"><\/span><strong>What problem does UTreeXO solve?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>One of the problems that stand out in the Bitcoin network is its\u00a0<strong>scalability<\/strong>\u00a0because as more users join the network this causes an\u00a0<strong>increase in the volume of information<\/strong>\u00a0to be processed by the nodes. This problem stands out especially in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-a-utxo-in-bitcoin\/\">UTXO<\/a>\u00a0environment.<\/p>\n<p>UTXO or\u00a0<strong>Unspent Transaction Output<\/strong>\u00a0is the information managed by nodes regarding the output of unspent transactions in the Bitcoin network. The volume of this information increases as more people join the Bitcoin network.<\/p>\n<p>In order to solve this problem and decrease the size of the information, the co-author of the<strong>\u00a0Lightning Network white paper, Tadje Dryja<\/strong>\u00a0of the\u00a0<strong>MIT<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Media Lab\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0Digital Currency Initiative proposed the implementation of\u00a0<strong>UtreeXO<\/strong>, the project capable of enabling data pruning for the\u00a0<strong>UTXO<\/strong>\u00a0area.<\/p>\n<p>UTreeXO is, in more technical terms, a hash-based\u00a0<strong>accumulator<\/strong>. This accumulator creates a root of the UTXO dataset, allowing to store only this\u00a0<strong>root<\/strong>\u00a0and not the<strong>\u00a0whole UTXO dataset.<\/strong>\u00a0With this operation, the accumulator saves and stores all the information in a space of\u00a0<strong>less than one kilobyte of data<\/strong>. The nodes that make use of this accumulator (UTreeXO) are called compact nodes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"image_1789277670\" class=\"img has-hover x md-x lg-x y md-y lg-y\">\n<div class=\"img-inner dark\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-large size-large lazyloaded\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu%C3%A9-es-UTreeXO1.jpeg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO1.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO1-300x205.jpeg 300w\" alt=\"Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO\" width=\"768\" height=\"526\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO1.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO1-300x205.jpeg 300w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO1.jpeg\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"is-divider divider clearfix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"is-divider divider clearfix\"><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"what_are_your_objectives\"><\/span><strong>What are your objectives?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>As we can already imagine, UTreeXO pursues one main objective and that is to\u00a0<strong>reduce the high volume of information<\/strong>\u00a0required for nodes to check the\u00a0<strong>availability<\/strong>\u00a0of UTXOs. Through its operation, they would only have to store a copy of the ownership information of each transaction performed. Along with this stored information, they also keep a<strong>\u00a0cryptographic proof<\/strong>\u00a0of the UTXO information. As a result of this whole system, the computational power and data storage requirements of the nodes necessary for the operation of the network are\u00a0<strong>drastically reduced<\/strong>. Moreover, the availability of resources and bandwidth in the network is significantly improved.<\/p>\n<p>Another of its main objectives is to be able to<strong>\u00a0offer greater scalability<\/strong>\u00a0in the Bitcoin network at some points, as this is usually the biggest flaw of the network. This goal is possible due to the reduction in the data flow within the network, which in turn significantly reduces the use of bandwidth, and on the other hand,\u00a0<strong>reduces the verification time<\/strong>\u00a0of transactions which is a great advantage for the network.<\/p>\n<div id=\"image_1035477366\" class=\"img has-hover x md-x lg-x y md-y lg-y\">\n<div class=\"img-inner dark\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-large size-large lazyloaded\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu%C3%A9-es-UTreeXO.jpeg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO-300x205.jpeg 300w\" alt=\"Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO\" width=\"768\" height=\"526\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO-300x205.jpeg 300w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Qu\u00e9-es-UTreeXO.jpeg\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"is-divider divider clearfix\"><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"how_does_utreexo_work\"><\/span><strong>How does UTreeXo work?<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>As the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-bitcoin\/\">Bitcoin<\/a>\u00a0problem became more and more noticeable, the\u00a0<strong>implementation<\/strong>\u00a0of UTreeXo became necessary. To remedy this problem, UTreeXo begins its\u00a0<strong>operation<\/strong>. UTreeXo nodes start operating when a new transaction is executed and<strong>\u00a0transmitted<\/strong>\u00a0over the network. The node takes over the transaction and sends a cryptographic proof of the transaction. Through the\u00a0<strong>cryptographic proof<\/strong>, the UTXO tree of the blockchain is regenerated in order to obtain a final\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-a-hash-2\/\">Hash<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, each compact node forwards both the transaction and the cryptographic proof to other compact nodes. This is how a consensus is generated on the UTXO tree of the chain, thus enabling the\u00a0<strong>public verification<\/strong>\u00a0of all the information. Finally, when the transaction is included in a certain block, all the proof data is discarded. This allows compact nodes to\u00a0<strong>store and save transactions<\/strong>\u00a0and tests in their memory. In this way there is no information to be written to the<strong>\u00a0hard disk<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"scaling_solution\"><\/span>Scaling solution<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>In addition to the UTreeXO compact nodes, we can also find other\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-a-node-its-importance-in-cryptocurrencies\/\">nodes<\/a>\u00a0<strong>called UTreeXO bridge nodes<\/strong>. These nodes perform the task of receiving standard transactions from the network. Standard transactions are those that are not initially formatted to use UTreeXO. In addition, these bridge nodes are responsible for carrying out all the necessary processing to i<strong>nclude the transactions in the tree.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In order to accomplish this entire process,\u00a0<strong>bridge nodes store the entire history<\/strong>\u00a0of the blockchain and the UTXO list in its entirety. Therefore, their role is to receive the information from the full nodes and embody a<strong>\u00a0proof of the existence<\/strong>\u00a0of unspent funds based on the\u00a0<strong>UTXO list<\/strong>. When all this process is completed, the information with the proof is forwarded to the corresponding compact nodes.<\/p>\n<p>In this whole process it should be noted that the presence of the bridge node is only needed at the moment when a standard full node\u00a0<strong>transmits the data<\/strong>\u00a0to a compact node. On the other hand, what we know as a compact node will only send the transaction data to the standard full node bypassing the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/en\/what-is-cryptography-the-basis-for-the-birth-of-cryptocurrencies\/\">cryptographic<\/a>\u00a0proof<\/strong>\u00a0of funds test.<\/p>\n<p>This whole system allows the implementation of UTreeXO in a \u201c<strong>backward compatible<\/strong>\u201d environment. In such an environment the\u00a0<strong>standard nodes and UTreeXO<\/strong>\u00a0can operate without any complications.<\/p>\n<div class=\"is-divider divider clearfix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"is-divider divider clearfix\"><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"advantages_and_disadvantages_of_utreexo\"><\/span><strong>Advantages and disadvantages of UTreeXo<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>As every UTreeXo project has some advantages and disadvantages. Below we will see some of them.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"advantages\"><\/span>Advantages<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Improves the\u00a0<strong>speed<\/strong>\u00a0of transactions on the Bitcoin network.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">It\u00a0<b>reduces\u00a0<\/b>the amount of\u00a0<b>information\u00a0<\/b>stored in the nodes.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Increases\u00a0<strong>security and privacy<\/strong>\u00a0in transactions.V<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"disadvantages\"><\/span>Disadvantages<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Bridge nodes can lead to a situation that\u00a0<strong>is not very decentralized.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><strong>New commissions<\/strong>\u00a0are created to act as incentives for the bridge nodes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Tiempo de lectura:<\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 4<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutos<\/span><\/span>If you are a Bitcoin user you may have heard of\u00a0Utretxo, a scalability improvement in Bitcoin. All this operation is carried out with the aim of significantly reducing the number of\u00a0cryptographic proofs\u00a0to represent a state of the blockchain and its different UTXOs in it. Among the capabilities of this enhancement is to drastically\u00a0reduce the storage [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blockchain-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitnovo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}