Bitcoin Forum

 Newbie question: Just installed Bitcoin Core 2 days ago. Start synchronizing the block chain since (24 hours x 2) on Macbook 10.9.3  So far, I got only "Processed 239569 blocks, last received block generated 1 year and 16 weeks ago". The last received block still changing but...
     Why it is painfully slow like this? Any tip to accelerate the speed of synchronizing ?

Thanks a bunch for any advise.

It depends of your internet speed as the QT has to download the data. I would suggest using electrum if you dont want to download everything.

If you want to speed things up, follow the instructions at the bottom of https://bitcoin.org/en/download:

You can get the torrent file for bootstrap.dat here: https://bitcoin.org/bin/blockchain/bootstrap.dat.torrent

I prefer an online wallet! No sync buuut you risk having your coins stolen if you aren't careful!

better download it separate ..! or use Multibit , electrum, armory .. or paper wallets.! Bitcoin QT will take ages to sync there was a member who was selling Pen Drives that has a copy.

I have multibit and armory on my laptop and I have to say both are of an amazing standard, good enough for me :)

I'm thinking to move to armory/multibit as well, fidn really annoying the syncing process every time there is an update.
What I would like to know is if there isany way to take my old btc addresses, the ones I created and used with my current BitcoinQT (on laptop) and Bitcoin Core (on desktop PC) wallets, aalong with me

get a lighter wallet like others mentioned. lol.

multibit also shows the dollar denomination.

Download old blocks from torrent. Jeff Garzik had a post about this, search and find it.

Maybe read the thread before posting? ;)

But by downloading by torrents, there is always a change you have something different in your blockchain.

Only 100% sure way to get the complete and correct blockchain is wait the sync proccess end.

Yeah I saw your post later. Browser was opened and I wrote but I realize I didn't hit the post button. I was watching PSG - Barcelona game. :)

Incorrect. This is a developer-made torrent. And anyway, Bitcoin Core doesn't just load the file, it verifies the entire thing like it was downloading it from other nodes.

Many thanks for the suggestion.  I got 22Gb in one file(bootstrap.dat). What should i do next?  How to import bootstrap to Bitcoin Core?

You need to put it into the Bitcoin Core data directory, which varies depending on your OS. Information from https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory

If you are on Windows:


The data directory for Linux is at and at for Mac.

Please note that these are default locations :)

i'm running on Mac 10.9.3.

I checked on all location, including

/Users/username/Library       -This path does not have subfolder Application Support

and

/Library/Application Support   -This path does not have subfolder bitcoin.


Then I try to open Bitcoin qt for a while, then close it.


What should i do next?


BTW, When I installed the Bitcoin QT, i did not install on the default folder but I put it under  /BTC  (my own made folder)

Sorry, I'm not a Mac user and can't help that much :(

If your on a Mac then you need to show hidden files.  You can turn this on and off thru the terminal.

http://osxdaily.com/2009/02/25/show-hidden-files-in-os-x/

This is also helping me! Thanks members :)

thanks for a good advice  :)

After turn on the hidden file , i still could not find the subfolder "Bitcoin" to put in the bootstrap.dat file, so I capture directory on both paths on my Mac,

/Library/Application Support/

http://i57.tinypic.com/15dqsl4.png

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/
http://i57.tinypic.com/2cfwp5l.png


last with my own bit coin customized installed directory
http://i57.tinypic.com/119cpjc.png



Now, I got bootstrap file but still could not find where to put it to.  I feel like a monkey could not peel off his banana.

Help please.

Your screenshots are very small, and cannot be zoomed in without becoming blurry. Could you please re-upload clearer versions?
Thanks.

my uploaded image is too small so I reupload it again.

/Library/Application Support/
http://i57.tinypic.com/rhpbvn.png

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/
http://i57.tinypic.com/10xub1j.png

last with my own bitcoin customized installed directory
http://i62.tinypic.com/2zz195k.png


Any Help would be highly appreciated!!

You should put bootstrap.dat in your own customized install directory, which is actually the data directory. Make sure Bitcoin Core is closed when you copy in bootstrap.dat, and then start Bitcoin Core. It should detect the file and start importing and verifying the blockchain data.

You can export the private keys of your old addresses and import them to your new multibit wallet.

Read the following the pages for a step by step walkthrough.
http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/7536/how-do-i-export-my-private-keys-from-my-bitcoin-qt-client
https://multibit.org/en/help/v0.5/help_importingPrivateKeys.html

Yes when you download the bootstrap file, the process is much faster.

i think it works now. It is showing status "Importing blocks from disk".  But still importing overnight, still takes time. Thank you all for your kind support

It should be noticeably faster because it's not downloading the blocks from other nodes but importing them from the disk. However, it still has to verify the blockchain data, so that does take time. Also, the bootstrap.dat file will only cover up until block height 317000, and then it will have to start downloading blocks again.

[/quote]

It should be noticeably faster because it's not downloading the blocks from other nodes but importing them from the disk. However, it still has to verify the blockchain data, so that does take time. Also, the bootstrap.dat file will only cover up until block height 317000, and then it will have to start downloading blocks again.
[/quote]

You are absolutely right, the importing is over and now synchronizing the remaining parts, 5 weeks. 

I would still recommend using Multibit or Armory for easiness of the process but Bitcoin-QT is fine as long as you synchronise it regularly, like once a week. You can use same address in all wallets as far as I know.

how do you have a faster sync? any suggestions..

I go on a vacation and come back and it takes forever...

Thats why you use multibit and instead waiting 7 days to synchronize you are synchronized in 1 hour

"If you aren't careful"?  ???
Guys, if you save your bitcoins on an third-party online wallet, all you're going to find are problems and as a REMINDER --> they can close the service when they want and leave the project stealing your bitcoins and money.
You can be careful but you don't know what they can do  ;)

Consider downloading and syncing the Bitcoin-QT or wallets like Multibit, trust me.

If you don't want to wait that long, just download an electrum wallet. This doesn't require you to sync the whole block chain

-T

That is true if you don't have the private keys, like on exchanges or casinos.
But for blockchain.info wallet, even if the site closes down, you won't lose your bitcoin as long as you have a up to date wallet backup.

Thank you very much sir, will have a look and try not to lose my btc when trying to figure it out

Anybody here uses Breadwallet?I want to keep my coins in my phone.

It's in most cases limited by the amount of data you receive from other peers of the Bitcoin network, thus it is limited by you internet connection. Effectively every desktop/mobile CPU of the last 10 years is able to process/validate the blockchain faster than the data comes in!

And the bitcoin devs have been working hard to solve the problem, and have already come up with a couple of different ideas.
https://bitcoinfoundation.org/2014/10/a-scalability-roadmap/

It took about 5 days for me to sync the blockchain. That wasn't constant online time, but elapsed time. I just logged in when I felt like it, and let it run for a while. The more I read about 3rd party wallets, the more I realise that I did the right thing in loading Bitcoin core.

You should just switch to multibit wallet, I use it on my mac and its 100% faster than any other bitcoin wallet i've tried.

Make sure you encrypt your wallet (password protect it) & you're about as safe as you can possibly be.

Make regular back ups too, I 100% swear by Bitcoin Core.