It's not finished
..
I'll make the code available when it's ready.
Until then, there is nothing to check. I'm confident that someone has reached out over email though.
nobody has responded yet.
It's hard to respond without being able to read the source. Once there is source, there will maybe be more responses.
What is it the kids say? Big, if true?
As it is unfinished and there is no source, it is at least not true yet. I'd be surprised if it stays at <50 rules but I'm always happy to be surprised.
As for big, it will depend on how it will be reviewed, maintained and built upon. We know that there are people working on libbitcoinkernel and Voskuil & co are working on building out libbitcoin's v3 ecosystem, so for now, those are ahead.
Bottom line I look at it this way: if tomorrow I'd have to build something that validates blocks and is exposed to the public network, the options I'd have would be, in order:
Add what is needed to bitcoind, i.e. an indexer and rpc method, or do something funky like changing fetch rules as is done for the fork observers.
Do it in golang and use btcd modules
Any other option - including for now libbitcoinkernel and libbitcoin - would need to be deployed as a (whitelisted) private node behind a bitcoind. I've similarly done this in the past when building tools with bitcoinj, bitcore - even toshi - and so on (and is also how I initially ran btcd, until 2020 or so), simply because these either don't implement the whole thing, or aren't battle tested.
libbitcoinkerneland Voskuil & co are working on building outlibbitcoin's v3 ecosystem, so for now, those are ahead.bitcoind, i.e. an indexer and rpc method, or do something funky like changing fetch rules as is done for the fork observers.btcdmoduleslibbitcoinkernelandlibbitcoin- would need to be deployed as a (whitelisted) private node behind a bitcoind. I've similarly done this in the past when building tools withbitcoinj,bitcore- eventoshi- and so on (and is also how I initially ranbtcd, until 2020 or so), simply because these either don't implement the whole thing, or aren't battle tested.