Bitcoin Core Developer: Bitcoin build time has dropped 42% since peak, down to 135 seconds

Michael Ford, a Bitcoin Core contributor and guest writer for BitMEX Research, recently published a report on improvements to Bitcoin's build system, while also expanding his involvement in removing third-party software dependencies such as OpenSSL. The report analyzes the results of tests conducted by Ford, which show that the number of packages built in Bitcoin Core 0.19.99 has been reduced by 44% since the Core 0.13.2 client, and the build time has been reduced by 42% since the peak, down to 135 seconds.

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“This work improves the security of the software by reducing the attack surface and improving software performance.”

According to Ford, the build system is one of the less sexy but important components of the Bitcoin Core codebase. He explained that it controls how the code is configured and compiled, as well as how it interacts with dependencies, “helping us build fully reproducible binaries that many Bitcoin users run.”

Ford also spoke about removing support for BIP70 from Bitcoin Core, a long-standing issue that contained security vulnerabilities, privacy issues, and incompatibilities between implementations.

“BIP70 is also one of the last parts of the codebase that requires OpenSSL, which prevents its removal.”

The Bitcoin Core developer also mentioned how dependencies on the macOS platform have been reduced, with the macOS binaries being built against six fewer dynamic libraries (DiskArbitration, Security, SystemConfiguration, OpenGL, AGL, and CFNetwork) using the latest codebase linking.

Additionally, security improvements have been made to the macOS platform, such as dynamic library checks during the build process, and the addition of "position-independent executables" and "NOUNDEFS" to the security check script.