Bitcoin Forum

I'm downloading the blockchain atm, and the green line in what I assume is the progress bar is about 1mm thick. Has it got to go all the way to the end? At the current rate of progress, that will take about another two weeks of intermittent activity. :(

I'm not sure how fast is your internet connection is but you should take in consideration that you are downloading a 40gb ~ file right now . So if you really don't want to wait ... you may want to switch to a Light-weight wallet like Electrum and you won't have to download the blockchain or anything else .

I'm using free WiFi from a variety of locations. This is for a project of mine, so I guess I'll put up with the wait. I'm at MacDonalds at the moment, but I'll move to a local supermarkety shortly. It's not as bad as it sounds, as I can run the sync. as a background job, and do some other work whilst it's going on.

yeah im afraid the blockchain is pretty massive now and between the download and the speed it takes to actually install it you might be waiting a while. At least once its done your contributing to the network.

It took more than 1.5 days for Bitcoin Core to download all the transactions in the ledger for me. You are in a for quite a long wait.
The worst part is I have a rather newer computer ~3 years with a Quad-Core Processor and 8GBs of ram that still works like new and it still took over a day to download the 20+ Gigs of Data.  :-\

A new computer wont help you download the data any quicker. you have to rely on your broadband speed for that so chances are its going to be slow. A faster pc will help everything install quicker though.

It's a new computer with an Intel core i5 processor, so I don't think it's the machine that's slowing things down.

atm, I'm watching a film on utube via the same wifi (but using the Chromebook), so I expect that slows down the download.

Well its 50GB and every transaction need to be processed, one by one. Its massive, thats why you dont use Bitcoin core if you're just a regular user that need a wallet. You use SPV for that. Bitcoin core is just for running nodes at this point.

I've switched WiFi and it's much faster. I think I'm the only one using the service available for a whole shopping precinct.

So, if I'm creating a node, how can I use that to gain more advantage than just a simple wallet service? I know that mining is no longer an economic option.

If you create a node, is there incentive (payment) for you to do so? Do you need static IP address?

The only way I could use a static ip is if I hosted a domain and used that.

WooHoo - fewer than 3 years to go. :)

No, there is no payment and no you dont need a static IP.

The only advantage running a full node is

#1 the good feeling that you are doing something for the network. It might be only a little as you are not constantly online and will most likely only connect to 8 other nodes, but you do your part.
#2 the good feeling that all data are verified locally and you do not rely on anyone else. No slim or light wallet implementation is without trust (either in the network or a server).

Yeah dw, mine took ages, its normal first time.

Well I'm now into the last 2 years, and the traffic is stable and regular. It's running at about a tenth of the speed about 3 hors ago, so I guess there is a lot of daytime traffic right now. I might break off and use the shopping precinct link later this evening.

I had the whole lot saved to a separate hdd and transferred it over,  between transferring it and installing it Again it still took a few hours.  I've actually formatted now and need to download the whole thing again,  I've got 80meg download so I'm hoping it won't be too long.

It's now saying that I have 1 year and 51 weeks left to download. I reckon that the green bar is about a fifth of the way across. There must have been a massive increase in use over the last few months. At this rate, blocks will be added at a faster rate than my download can grab them. :)

if you look at chart of bitcoin blockchain size
https://blockchain.info/de/charts/blocks-size

you will find it increased about 25GB this year oly and you have around 1year and 51 weeks left to download so it means you still need to download 80% of blockchain that may take long time based on your laptop and internet speed.if you don't have a special use of core wallet you should switch to light version wallets like multibit,electrum,armory

Thanks for the advice, but this is a bit of a research project for me, so I will download the entire chain. I understand that I can copy it onto a USB stick or SD card, and then I can move it around between computers. I might see if I can use it on a chromebook or a mobile phone for example. The download is actually a background task despite all my chat about it, so it isn't taking up too much of my time. Of course there are no b/width or electricity costs associated with it either. I've already learnt a lot about Bitcoin, mainly as a result of replies on this board, and I've also discovered that another project idea of mine is not viable. This was using solar power for Bitcoin mining.

Yeah, I saw a miner who uses free energy from a hydro-electric dam in Norway, and they probably dont need air-conditioning... just pop a window and its suddenly 0degrees!

As for mining in general, you need to get onto that guy who made the quantum computer.  He's clearly wasting his time with the mysteries of time and space.  If you could convince him to partner with you mining, you could clear the rest of the blocks by tea time.

How big if your file currently?  Depending on size might put in services looking to buy it.  I have a feeling someone would sell a usb drive or other option for not terrible.

What is your speed at McDonalds?  I normally don't get anything close to what I would want to sit there and download, but I'm spoiled on a gigabit internet connection.

IIRC someone sold the bootstrap.dat for a while on CDs/DVD. Not sure if thats still a thing.

A Sandisk 64Gb usb stick is £17 at PC world. I haven't looked to see if there are any cheaper. I think somebody said that the current file size is around 80Gb, so this may not be large enough. 17.00 GBP    =    0.0577263 XBT (xe.com current exchange)

MacD transfer speed is just under 30Kb/sec at the moment, and it's fairly consistent. It's 7am, and there isn't anyone else on WiFi atm. However that will change when the sales reps arrive during the next hour or so. I was getting almost 1300Kb/sec at the retail mall last night. I used the management company's free WiFi, and nobody uses that after about 7pm.

I hadn't thought of selling the file, but I guess it would be an easy way to start my wallet - when I am able to create it :) I think I'd prefer to sell it locally though, that way the buyer could check that it will load on his machine. I could load it onto a USB stick, Mini or standard SD card, or DVD assuming that Bitcoin core recognise all of those formats.

At the moment, I still need to download 1 year and 42 weeks worth of data, so it will probably not be available until after Christmas.

file size is 57.8 giga currently not 80, i was able to sync it in 45 minutes with my 850 pro , so right now we have a nearly 50% increase, so 1 hour and 7 minutes to sync it

with an evo will probably be around 1.3 hour

Well I would guess that I've been online for around 12 hours spread over getting on for 3 days.

I might start saving the traffic analysis graphs for comparison. I find it interesting, would anyone else be interested? Apart from MacD, I'm using 2 supermarkets, 2 hotels, a shopping mall admin hub ( the fastest), and a few others when I find them. Speed varies throughout the day and night.

I don't think computer speed or power is relevant (as long as it's half way decent). The reliability and speed of the WiFi seems to be the deciding factor.

If you bandwidth is not that quick, why not switch to electrum, or multibi wallets? They are popular in terms of security and utility.

Yes please share the pictures if you can.

I'll sort out some hosting over Christmas, and I'll make a comparison page. MacD was stable this morning (but only running at 13Kb/sec), and was consistent wherever I was, even when I was at the far ewnd of the car park.

Well you are very dedicated to this I applaud your motivation to go there over and over.  Not many out there would do that, but shows what some will go to get it.

It's been a long time since i have done anything close.  I'm not sure how many of you remember zip disks... they were before usb sticks :).  I would go to library and download demo's and biggest was america's army game... I spent 4 times there for hours before I finally got it with out corrupt or stop during.

Your story makes me look back at sitting there so long and waiting.   Have done a fast food a few times, but I'm kinda spoiled anymore on internet. 

If it does not work out I really suggest looking in services and see if someone will sell for decent. 

I remember programming an IBM 1401 using punched cards. I think it had 4k of memory. :) I've even programmed an IBM 421 tabulator using a plug board.

I think you guys are missing the point here. I've got an RJ45 socket on this notebook, and I could just plug it into a cable modem if it was just about downloading the blockchain, but what would I learn from that? Using free WiFi, I'm learning a lot about the variety of  network connections, and also the pattern of traffic during blockchain synchronisation. It part of my investigation into computing without using a hombase. It's not just for the destitute, but more for people living or travelling off the grid. That includes RVers, Campervan dwellers, caravaners, boat cruisers, and even people living in tents or humpies.

I may have to reduce my time at MacD. The people are  friendly enough, and it's a nice clean evironment, but the best speed I get is around 23Kb, and that is reduced a lot by what I believe to be radio interference. I'm on  the Waitrose WiFi atm, and I'm getting a clean rate of over 30Kb. i need to get some fuel, and Asda (Walmart) is the cheapest in this area. They also have a 24hr Superstore, and there is another MacD next to the petrol station. I may drive over there in a while for a bit morte experimentation.

So here I am at MacD in Leigh Park, and I got a free cup of coffee with part of my bean collection. It's not as strong as my usual MD, and there are any power points. But the WiFi seems to be much faster, I'll take a screen shop when I've got a full picture.

It was interesting at first. I couldn't log onto the web, and I didn't get a splash page. I loaded Bitcoin core and it sync'd without any problems. When I eventually got access to the web, it sent me a splash page, and now I can post. So what is the significancy of this? Well, if you don't get the splash page, then my guess is that it hasn't authenticated your account. So anything off the web will be completely anonymouse. Obviously it can't read cookies if it can't load web pages - is this true? It's so long since I did any web design, that I can't remember.

You recently said you wanted to look for hosting. I dont think this is needed. You could just create a thread dedicated to the topic in e.g. tech support[1] (its the bitcoin core section) and updated it as you go. Pictures could be on imgur or something similar.


Not sure, but I would guess that the server handling the authentication was unreachable and that they dont filter ports besides http(s).


Not sure if they log this, but the router will know your Mac-Address, which is -unless you spoof it- unique for your device. They should not be able to access your cookies, no.


[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=4.0

Most will not be able to do anything "bad".  But look at "rogue access points" if anyone has one of these set up at one of the places your going.... a splash screen could be a bad thing if they are trying to harvest logins, depends on what the splash screen asked for.

And they could have a page that looks real... but again it's sitting there to harvest passwords so it looks real but when you log in you don't go anywhere.  Chances are slim this is what is happening but you should be aware there are AP's like this if your using free ones so much.

Thanks for the replies. You are correct about the hosting. I've got a bit of a history on the web, and I've still got a lot of domain names from that. atm they are all routed to a monetising service, but I'm just stating to create a few projects for them. The hosting is for these projects rather than posting images. I'll probably consolidate the graphs, and post some comments about the Wifi on a page there. I'd be happy to open it up for discussion in this forum. Bitcoin is a fantastic facility for people with a mobile lifestyle, or for people taking a mobile holiday. Hence my increased interest in Bitcoin.

Thanks for the warning about the lack of security in using public WiFi. It was because of this that I bought a Chromebook, and I used that for net access. There aren't any files or info that would be of any use to anyone. The nrew Windows 10 machine is a different matter, and I'm cautious about its use. It'll take a bit of major planning to secure Bitcoin wallets when I start to use it. I wasn't aware of rogue access points. I'll read up on them - many thanks for mentioning them.

MacD uses the O2 network, and they seem more interested in getting me to buy their Christmas chicken burgers than anything else. BT is a different matter, they keep pushing pages at me, and some of their advertising looks a bit iffy.

The download is taking far too long, so I think I'm going to cheat and complete it over a cable connection. I can always run some partial downloads if I need to repeat any of the tests.

Thanks again for the useful comments and info.

Here is today's titbit of info.

I looked at the list of peers used in my download - there are 8 of them. For the record, my ip is 46.233.116.128 that is MacD via O2 in Slough, England.
Here is the peer list. The entries are IP, ping time, Location, ISP

45.32.235.62 - 705618 - North Holland - Choopa
178.78.250.3 - 909392 - Stockholm - Ownit
188.40.51.68 - 266569 - Falkenstein (Germany) - Hetznet
85.9.211.186 - 845045 - Salaspils (Latvia) - SIA
72.94.11.105 - 236 - Philadelphia - Verizon
37.120.176.52 - 63 - Karlsruhe - Netcup
107.161.25.226 - 273 - Seattle - Ramnode
104.219.251.106 - 445 - Los Angeles - Namecheap

I guess I should consider this list when considering WiFi performance. :)