Is it attainable/possible for nodes to redact info (for instance inappropriate pictures) of their blockchain and stay a part of the community?
Sidenote:
Though OP_RETURN was meant for embedding small quantities of information, I consider virtually all circumstances of embedding of pictures within the final 12 months use OP_FALSE OP_IF <a number of information pushes> OP_ENDIF inside an in any other case regular script in a witness element. This avoids limitations imposed on OP_RETURN and positive factors the Segwit low cost on transaction charges.
Censoring transactions:
Pruning nodes discard blocks which have been validated and whose content material is now not needed for sustaining UTXO state. It should be possible to be selective and have particular standards to discard information that’s undesirable. For Bitcoin Core I think about it’d necessitate rewriting massive blockfiles or some technique equivalent to overwriting parts with say zeroes and updating indexes accordingly.
Not relaying unconfirmed transactions of this kind has been steered. As Michael Folkson commented, massive pictures (e.g. a number of MB) already cannot be relayed by Bitcoin core nodes due to its default coverage guidelines. publishers of enormous pictures need to make direct preparations with miners.
Nonetheless, the above nonetheless requires that nodes obtain and validate new blocks, no matter content material, as a way to keep UTXO state. So the aim can’t be utterly achieved.
I consider it is usually computationally infeasible for regular nodes to differentiate inappropriate pictures from acceptable pictures. Moreover, Individuals who embed such pictures can take countermeasures to stop their detection.
