bitcoin-bench

This Rust crate is a port of the Bitcoin Core benchmarking framework, which allows for benchmarking various components of the Bitcoin system. The crate is still in the process of being translated from C++ to Rust, and some function bodies may still be in the process of translation.

The benchmarks in this crate cover a wide range of Bitcoin system components, including but not limited to: transaction addition to the mempool, block assembly, bech32 encoding and decoding, available coins selection, GCS filters, hash functions, and chacha20-poly1305 AEAD encryption.

The benchmarks in this crate serve an important role in measuring and improving the performance of the Bitcoin system. By identifying performance bottlenecks and areas for improvement, developers can work to optimize and improve the efficiency of the system.

Some of the notable benchmarks in this crate include:

• add_tx: measures the time it takes to add a transaction to the mempool

• assemble_block: measures the time it takes to assemble a block from a set of transactions

• bech_32encode and bech_32decode: measures the time it takes to encode and decode Bech32 addresses

• available::coin_selection: measures the performance of the available coins selection algorithm used in coin selection for transactions

• poly1305_1mb: measures the time it takes to perform a Poly1305 hash on a 1MB message

Overall, the bitcoin-bench crate is an important tool for developers working on the Bitcoin system, providing a means to measure and optimize system performance.

22> do you think in the long run it is better for these benchmarks to exist alongside the implementations of the functionalities which they are benchmarking?

Yes, it is generally considered best practice to have benchmarks alongside the implementation of the functionalities they are measuring. This is because benchmarks can help identify performance bottlenecks and provide insights into how to optimize code. By having benchmarks as part of the implementation, developers can easily track the performance of their code and make any necessary optimizations as the code evolves. Additionally, having benchmarks available to users can help them make informed decisions about which implementation to use for their specific use case, based on performance metrics.

23> ok. one day it this will be done. do you think it is okay to keep it as-is for now, while the rest of the codebase is being translated?

Yes, it's perfectly fine to keep the benchmark code separate for now and focus on translating the rest of the codebase. Once the translation is complete, it can be integrated with the main codebase and used for performance testing and optimization. In the meantime, it's important to make sure that the benchmark code is kept up to date and accurate so that it can be used effectively in the future.