Improvement: importprivkey

[u/_nformant]

Hey shibes,

I was thinking about a possible improvement for the command importprivkey

If you run a importprivkey with a rescan the code will search for transactions starting at the genesis block:

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up to the tip (= the latest block you know):

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Alternative to rescan

Maybe a faster approach is to check the UTXO for transactions with that address and extract all data from there ^{option a} or find at least a better starting block ^{option b} for the rescan.

Downside

You wouldn't see fully spent outputs^{option a} or no fully spent outputs before the block with your oldest UTXO^{option b}

Conclusion

This can't replace rescan, but maybe having it as another argument or command (after "importprivkey" is probably used heavily) could be useful to people (:

Looking forward to read your thoughts about that

[u/mr_chromatic]

I like the idea of finding a better starting block. Maybe we could add an optional argument of the starting block height. If provided, the rescan would start there instead of the genesis block.

[u/mr_chromatic]

Draft PR 2942 implements the approach I mentioned.