I have a few questions on checkpointData in src/kernel/chainparams.cpp file.
This variable seems stopped being updated from approximately 10 years ago, judging by the timestamp of the height of the most recent checkpoint block. Also, I noticed that this variable is only used in the ContextualCheckBlockHeader function in src/validation.cpp file. The role of checkpoints seems pretty obvious.
// Don't accept any forks from the main chain prior to last checkpoint.
// GetLastCheckpoint finds the last checkpoint in MapCheckpoints that's in our
// BlockIndex().
By navigating through multiple posts, I realized that the role of checkpointData has been significantly reduced. Some Bitcoin Core developers even mention that it is likely to be removed at some time.
So my question is… isn’t it already safe to completely remove the code related to checkpointData? The possibility of bitcoin being reversed to its 2014-state is almost close to zero. Or, is there a chance that some new checkpoint blocks will be added in the future?
