Warning about "Unknown block versions": Also tell the reason #10860

bitcoind version

bitcoind 0.14.2

What happened

Some hours ago I got an alert from bitcoind: Warning: Unknown block versions being mined! It's possible unknown rules are in effect

I guess the unknown version bit triggering this warning is bit 4 (bip91) that got over 50% signalling at that point.

What I would expect / suggest

I would suggest to include the unknown version bit(s) in the message, so users are assured about exactly what is unknown.

E.g. Warning: Unknown block versions (version bit x) being mined! It's possible unknown rules are in effect Warning: Unknown block versions (version bits x,y,z) being mined! It's possible unknown rules are in effect

I think that would not do harm to users that do not know anything about version bits, but those who have at least heard something about that before, can read what bits are unknown and maybe search in the internet for more information.

Seems reasonable. Still, good thing we have this warning, it's doing exactly what it should - informing users that they shouldn't trust blocks or confirmations right now or for the next few weeks. We should maybe make the warning stronger depending on the level of signaling.

On July 17, 2017 11:27:03 PM EDT, wodry notifications@github.com wrote:

bitcoind version

bitcoind 0.14.2

What happened

Some hours ago I got an alert from bitcoind: Warning: Unknown block versions being mined! It's possible unknown rules are in effect

I guess the unknown version bit triggering this warning is bit 4 (bip91) that got over 50% signalling at that point.

What I would expect / suggest

I would suggest to include the unknown version bit(s) in the message, so users are assured about exactly what is unknown.

E.g. Warning: Unknown block versions (version bit x) being mined! It's possible unknown rules are in effect Warning: Unknown block versions (version bits x,y,z) being mined! It's possible unknown rules are in effect

I think that would not do harm to users that do not know anything about version bits, but those who have at least heard something about that before, can read what bits are unknown and maybe search in the internet for more information.

It both does this already and cannot do this.

It does this already: https://people.xiph.org/~greg/temp/warning_in_gui.png

It cannot do this: the warning you are seeing is a generic non-bip9 specific warning. The meaning of the version may have nothing to do with any kind of bits at all. The meaning of the unexpected version could even be established elsewhere in blocks.

I would suggest to tell the user about the reason(s) for the warning in the warning message, so the user is clear about it and not left uncertain. Whatever reason that would be.

Not sure I understand @gmaxwell's reply - are you saying it's not possible to interpret the version bits into understandable human language?

All this warning means is that there are many blocks with an overall version number that we don't expect. It is not due to one specific version bit being set; there is a different (and more specific) warning for that - however the threshold isn't met yet for the latter.