Reduce size of nonces associated with coinbase scriptSig

[ASICseer]

Environment

coinbase scriptSig in found blocks.

Feature Description

• Determine if nonce byte size uses bytes from the maximum 100-byte limit.
• Reduce nonce size.

Steps to Reproduce

Mine a block and check expected result:

Expected Result

The ÅÖ � Hh^ D +Fh^A ������ portion of ÅÖ � Hh^ D +Fh^A ������ /pool.ASICseer.com calin BCHN/ should be as small as possible.

[cculianu]

A lot of the data in there seems to be custom-crafted to make the work-unit as unique as possible. Here's some of the stuff that CK encoded in there:

• block height (4 bytes)
• nonce1 (4 bytes, user configurable size here actually)
• nonce2 (8 bytes, user configurable size here)
• timestamp (seconds, nanoseconds) of when the work unit was created (8 bytes)

Plus a few other tiny things. I believe the above is all there to prevent cheating. If the work unit is as unique as possible, down to a nanosecond timestamp and nonces, it prevents cheaters from taking the same work unit and submitting it twice, etc. I think that's why all this stuff is so carefully placed there.

I hesitate to reduce that stuff, really -- given the reason I think it's there. I'm not sure though -- but that's what I suspect.

This is a slightly new problem domain for me so I can't be certain yet...