Bitcoin Forum

I'm just synchronising and it's taking a while. Does each user holds detail of all transactions or are they limited in some way to network neighbours?

Also, a note that I've just had to renice the bitcoin process.. :/

Then, if I want to accept Bitcoins from public, is it wise to declare a single address for that? Is suggesting the address sufficient?? I've seen advice for websites accepting Bitcoins that suggests using third party and even hosting bitcoin servers for it but I'm wondering why anything directly is needed, especially if its low number of transactions; surely the bitcoin community stands alone and merchants in theory don't need anything themselves - although obviously in practice having those using it, hosting capability is important.

 8)

full nodes need a full copy of the blockchain back to the genesis block.  The satoshi (reference) client is a full node (zero trust).

As bitcoin continues to grow more users likely will use "lite-nodes" or eWallets. 

To accept bitcoins you only need a single address however
1) using a unique address per user and/or order makes checking/tracking payments much easier.
2) you don't need to use a third party service however some merchants may find it easier to use a third party service.

I use a single address (18tkn) for all my transactions with the public.  It's easy to remember, and that way, I don't have to be at my "bitcoin computer" when I want to give someone an address that I'd like to receive Bitcoins to.

For a business, it'd be wise to give an individual address to each person, because it does indeed make order tracking, etc much easier.  For personal usage without worrying about privacy, using a single address for interfacing with the public works perfectly fine.

The answer is no: you do not need to download all transactions to use Bitcoin.

Most people will use ewallets or "thin clients" which don't download transactions.

Thanks!