bitcoin/bitcoin.org — pull request #685 by harding (2014-12-18 01:27:56+00:00)
Title: Dev Docs: Document Blocks-First IBD & Orphan Blocks

Dev Docs: Document Blocks-First IBD & Orphan Blocks

Preview IBD section: http://dg0.dtrt.org/en/developer-guide#initial-block-download
Preview Orphan Blocks section: http://dg0.dtrt.org/en/developer-guide#orphan-blocks

This pull adds a new section about the Initial Block Download (IBD) method used in Bitcoin Core 0.9, which I've retroactively named blocks-first. It also adds a short section explaining the difference between orphan blocks and stale blocks. See the commit message for minor details.

This is a partial resubmission of closed pull #660 focusing only on the current IBD method. This keeps the text shorter and, hopefully, easier to review. I also think this version is much, much better---it includes nearly 100% rewritten text plus five new illustrations that didn't appear in the original pull. After we get this merged, I'll rewrite and resubmit the headers-first part of pull #660.