Could a Bitcoin client be designed to only need a few day's transactions?

[andrewbb]

"Hashpoints" could be published by miners every so often (once a day maybe), so you'd only have to download the last day's transactions on a new client.

[andrewbb]

Why can't the client just start from the last verified blockchain hash?

[shorena]

"Hashpoints" could be published by miners every so often (once a day maybe), so you'd only have to download the last day's transactions on a new client.

How would you verify that my transaction is valid as it spends an output that is 17 days old and you only have the transactions/blocks from the last 24 hours?

Why can't the client just start from the last verified blockchain hash?

Verified? By whom?

I think what you want is a slim client such as Multibit or Electrum.

[HeroCat]

You need only Multibit then 

[Meuh6879]

Why can't the client just start from the last verified blockchain hash?

use merkle trees client, instead (all android and iphone wallet, multibit ... etcs ...).

[andrewbb]

Ok thanks.  I think Electrum is what I was looking for.

[MTJ151]

The alt coin Boolberry works something like this I think.

[bitnanigans]

You can build a standalone client which makes calls to APIs to get balances and such. I'm working on something similar to that concept at the moment.

[susan234]

"Hashpoints" could be published by miners every so often (once a day maybe), so you'd only have to download the last day's transactions on a new client.

Your idea is good, this function should be able to achieve.at that time  your coins will be more secure