[tor-dev] Proposal 338: Use an 8-byte handshake in NETINFO cells

[Jim Newsome]

On 3/14/22 11:44, Nick Mathewson wrote:

<snip>

 > Currently Tor relays use a 4-byte timestamp (in seconds since the Unix
 > epoch) in their NETINFO cells.  Notoriously, such a timestamp will
 > overflow on 19 January 2038.
 >
 > Let's get ahead of the problem and squash this issue now, by expanding
 > the timestamp to 8 bytes. (8 bytes worth of seconds will be long enough
 > to outlast the Earth's sun.)

<snip>

With all those extra bits, would there be any value to using a more 
granular time measure? e.g. microseconds?

If not, would it be worth saving some bytes and only expanding to 5 
bytes? (I know; it *feels* wrong, but I can't think of much real downside)