Hey guys,

I'm in the middle of implementing new option for official bitcoin client:  -fastboot.
As we know, currently syncing "fresh" client takes really long time - even several hours. This option will allow user to download all blocks in a very short time, by downloading almost all blocks (as compressed file) from one of mirrors (mirror will be choosen randomly by client).  MDhash of downloaded file will be hardcoded into client, to prevent changing blocks. It also mean that this code needs to be updated every few weeks (as currently is with the number of blocks),  but I think it's worth it.

What do you think about that?

Pros:
+ sync you fresh client in few minutes


Cons:
- servers with files are centralized, so in case they doesn't work,  option won't speed up


Thanks!

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EDIT: I've run small test.

I used Matt's blockchain (thanks Matt for sharing this!!) on fresh client.
(http://bitcoin.bluematt.me/bitcoin-nightly/blockchain-nightly/)

download time: 7 minutes
bunzip2 and tar -  ~ 2 minutes
./bitcoin -rescan :  1 minute


total: 10 minutes
result:  140600 blocks done
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I'm not sure if it's "newbie" but I cannot post to developers
I cloned git repo from github, but master doesnt compile (log below)
What's wrong with that? I have installed wxWidget 2.9,  ubuntu 10.10, gcc 4.4.5

seems that someone is using wx method which doesn't exists.. which version of wx are you using?

regis@lap:~/bit/bitcoin/src$ git fetch origin
regis@lap:~/bit/bitcoin/src$ git rebase origin/master
Current branch master is up to date.
regis@lap:~/bit/bitcoin/src$ make -j4 -f makefile.unix bitcoin
g++ -c -O2 -Wno-invalid-offsetof -Wformat -g -D__WXDEBUG__ -DNOPCH -DUSE_SSL -DUSE_UPNP=0 -I/usr/local/lib/wx/include/gtk2-unicode-debug-static-2.9 -I/usr/local/include/wx-2.9 -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D__WXDEBUG__ -D__WXGTK__ -pthread -DGUI -o obj/ui.o ui.cpp
ui.cpp: In function ‘bool GetWalletPassphrase()’:
ui.cpp:262: error: ‘class wxString’ has no member named ‘ToStdString’
ui.cpp: In member function ‘virtual void CMainFrame::OnIconize(wxIconizeEvent&)’:
ui.cpp:448: warning: ‘bool wxIconizeEvent::Iconized() const’ is deprecated (declared at /usr/local/include/wx-2.9/wx/event.h:1950)
ui.cpp:456: warning: ‘bool wxIconizeEvent::Iconized() const’ is deprecated (declared at /usr/local/include/wx-2.9/wx/event.h:1950)
ui.cpp: In member function ‘virtual void CMainFrame::OnMenuOptionsEncryptWallet(wxCommandEvent&)’:
ui.cpp:1183: error: ‘class wxString’ has no member named ‘ToStdString’
ui.cpp:1200: error: ‘class wxString’ has no member named ‘ToStdString’
ui.cpp: In member function ‘virtual void CMainFrame::OnMenuOptionsChangeWalletPassphrase(wxCommandEvent&)’:
ui.cpp:1248: error: ‘class wxString’ has no member named ‘ToStdString’
ui.cpp:1274: error: ‘class wxString’ has no member named ‘ToStdString’
ui.cpp:1294: error: ‘class wxString’ has no member named ‘ToStdString’
make: *** [obj/ui.o] Error 1
regis@lap:~/bit/bitcoin/src$