Can the information needed be condensed somehow?

[Odriew]

To start with I should admit that I don't really know that much about bitcoin.  I've been interested in it for a while now, but what I know is very limited and perhaps what I think I know about it is wrong.  So basically sorry if this thread doesn't make any sense.  I've heard that bitcoin keep track of every single transactions from the beginning in multiple places.  This seems to me to be a ridicules amount of data.  I wonder if on occasion it would be possible to flattening this information reducing it to a record of who has what bitcoins at that particular time.  Maybe do this every couple of years or so. 

[unamis76]

Yes, Bitcoin keeps track of every transaction in something called blockchain. It is publicly viewable in of the many blockchain explorers around.

There are ways to reduce the burden of the blockchain, such as purging, but they're not very beneficial in their current implementations.

[scriptman]

Conversations are occurring at this very moment to decide on the future of the blockchain and how it's data set is to be managed.

It currently takes a very long time for your desktop wallet to sync with the network and this is to only worsen over time due to the exponential growth of the blockchain.

Many ideas for scaling Bitcoin have been brought to the table and the development team are currently trying to decide on what is the best method for managing this.

Welcome to the world of Bitcoin by the way - it's good that you're curious about it's inner workings.

You may become one of the people that changes Bitcoin one day.... just think of that

[erickimani]

I am not very conversant with the Bitcoin but that is a very good question.

[RustyNomad]

Not sure whether you are aware of this but you only need to download and keep the whole blockchain data if you are running a full none like bitcoin core.

There are what is referred to as light wallets out there like Electrum, Multibit etc.. where you do not have to download and or keep the blockchain data on your pc thus saving you plenty of storage space.

[bob123]

The Blockchain is the reason for being dezentralized.
Thats the way it works without need of any institiution

[GriffinHeart]

The current methods are, at most, counter-productive. Also, it is quite a large task to actually purge the blockchain and do it correctly without consequence. Just download the 50GB, it will help the whole network function to full potention.