If we change how blocks are verified and mined, and that is done with a bug included, it could lead to massive damage for the Bitcoin network as a whole since verification is everything.
Yes, of course. This is a very fundamental change, and it will require an extraordinary amount of testing before this will end up in a release. No one is thinking about just releasing this right now. This took a long time to write and tweak to get it in its current form, and took all precautions I could to make sure it behaves exactly as the old code - I'm all aware of the risks if it happens to contain a bug. However, in my opinion it is also the right way forward. We need to make sure fully validating nodes can keep running on end-user hardware, without crippling their machines.
How this was tested:
- I've received and sent coins with it.
- I've p2pool-mined on an ultraprune Bitcoind with 1 GH/s for a few weeks. An actual block was found.
- I've written code to calculate a hash of the uncompressed database state, both for the old and new schema's. In every test, they result in exactly the same hash for the same block.
Nonetheless, the change is so large that claiming that it is bug free would be naive (and in fact, a bug was probably found already, as you pointed out). That is why I asked for testers in the announcements - we need the bugs to be found now and not later.
Can you now please change the title of this thread? I find this very offensive. I've invested weeks of my personal time in doing what is necessary to deal with the increasing scalability probles, and I get this in return? I have no problem with being cautious, but there is no need for fear mongering.