Historical retrospective · Bitcoin
BIP 157 proposed compact block filters for light clients
BIP 157 describes how full nodes can serve compact filters that let light clients find relevant transactions without downloading every block.
The model offers a way to improve privacy and reduce bandwidth compared with asking a centralized server which transactions match a wallet.
This design makes node operators part of a more decentralized data-serving layer for mobile and resource-constrained clients.
Compact filters shift rather than eliminate trust and availability assumptions; client design still matters.
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