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+# Block Persistence
+
+## Purpose
+
+The main objective of the `hedera-block-node` project is to replace the storage of Consensus Node artifacts (e.g.
+Blocks) on cloud storage buckets (e.g. GCS and S3) with a solution managed by the Block Node server. This document aims
+to describe the high-level design of how the Block Node persists and retrieves Blocks and how it handles exception cases
+when they arise.
+
+---
+
+### Goals
+
+1) BlockItems streamed from a producer (e.g. Consensus Node) must be collated and persisted as a Block.  Per the
+   specification, a Block is an ordered list of BlockItems. How the Block is persisted is an implementation detail.
+2) A Block must be efficiently retrieved by block number.
+
+---
+
+### Terms
+
+**BlockItem** - A BlockItem is the primary data structure passed between the producer, the `hedera-block-node`
+and consumers. The BlockItem description and protobuf definition are maintained in the `hedera-protobuf`
+[project](https://github.com/hashgraph/hedera-protobufs/blob/continue-block-node/documents/api/block/stream/block_item.md).
+
+**Block** - A Block is the base element of the block stream at rest. At present, it consists of an ordered collection of
+BlockItems. The Block description and protobuf definition are maintained in the `hedera-protobuf`
+[project](https://github.com/hashgraph/hedera-protobufs/blob/continue-block-node/documents/api/block/stream/block.md).
+
+---
+
+### Entities
+
+**BlockReader** - An interface defining methods used to read a Block from storage. It represents a lower-level
+component whose implementation is directly responsible for reading a Block from storage.
+
+**BlockWriter** - An interface defining methods used to write BlockItems to storage. It represents a lower-level
+component whose implementation is directly responsible for writing a BlockItem to storage as a Block.
+
+**BlockRemover** - An interface defining the methods used to remove a Block from storage. It represents a lower-level
+component whose implementation is directly responsible for removing a Block from storage.
+
+---
+
+### Design
+
+The design for `Block` persistence is fairly straightforward. Block server objects should use the persistence entity 
+interfaces to read, write and remove `Block`s from storage. `BlockItem`s streamed from a producer are read off the wire 
+one by one and passed to an implementation of `BlockWriter`. The `BlockWriter` is responsible for collecting related 
+`BlockItem`s into a `Block` and persisting the `Block` to storage in a way that is efficient for retrieval at a later 
+time. The `BlockWriter` is also responsible for removing a partially written `Block` if an exception occurs while 
+writing it. For example, if half the `BlockItem`s of a `Block` are written when an IOException occurs, the `BlockWriter` 
+should remove all the `BlockItem`s of the partially written `Block` and pass the exception up to the caller. Services
+requiring one or more `Block`s should leverage a `BlockReader` implementation. The `BlockReader` should be able to
+efficiently retrieve a `Block` by block number.  The `BlockReader` should pass unrecoverable exceptions when reading
+a `Block` up to the caller.