[POLL] Did you download the BTC blockchain for personal use ?

[Spoetnik]

Poll question.. just curious

I have used Multibit (Java BTC wallet) so i didn't have to download the chain.
That was after trying for a couple days to download the chain when i first started out way back years ago.

I also don't like using services that i have to trust that can be hacked. (online wallets)

So yeah.. have any of you actually got the whole thing downloaded ? How long did it take ? LOL
I bet many tried and gave up like me.

Thanks for voting and remember 1 BTC in your wallet is worth more than 2 on the Blockchain !

Secure your private keys noobs !

[gentlemand]

No. My internet isn't the fastest and all my computers are ancient. My online empire would be paralysed for days if I started up with Core.

[PolarPoint]

When I first started, the blockchain was a lot smaller. I remembered it was under 20G. I downloaded everything in 2 days.

[lihuajkl]

Yes, before I thought core is the most secure wallet,  I downloaded the whole blockchain. But now No, It is wasting my time! I need to use the wallet whenever I need! electrum is secure enough which I am using ! It is able to serve my requirement .

[Spoetnik]

Yes, before I thought core is the most secure wallet,  I downloaded the whole blockchain. But now No, It is wasting my time! I need to use the wallet whenever I need! electrum is secure enough which I am using ! It is able to serve my requirement .

Does it keep your keys on your own machine ?

I don't trust online wallets.. avoid them guys.
Some wallets are a mix of different tech eh

[bitbaby]

Yes, before I thought core is the most secure wallet,  I downloaded the whole blockchain. But now No, It is wasting my time! I need to use the wallet whenever I need! electrum is secure enough which I am using ! It is able to serve my requirement .

Does it keep your keys on your own machine ?

I don't trust online wallets.. avoid them guys.
Some wallets are a mix of different tech eh

Electrum is not an online wallet, it is a desktop wallet and according to me the safest one, you can keep two copies of it, one for cold storage and one for hot wallet on the desktop and you can spend funds from the cold storage by transferring the signed transactions and broadcasting them from your desktop wallet, the keys of your cold storage can remain cold and safe from hackers.

As for the main question, no, I haven't downloaded the whole blockchain, it's too big and would cost me a lot of bandwidth.

[DannyHamilton]

Yes, before I thought core is the most secure wallet,

No.  Core is NOT the most secure wallet.  Core is just the protocol reference implementation.  There are other wallets that provide significantly better security including offline signing, HD address generation, and air gapped private keys.

[Kakmakr]

To answer your question, Yes at first I did download the whole bloody thing and it took my over 3 days, with my slow internet. I think it is one of the major flaws, if you can call it that, in Bitcoin. People with poor internet infrastructure should not even attempt it. They should create some Bip protected paper wallets and store bigger amounts in there and then use the online wallets for small amounts.

People with fast uncapped internet, will not understand this frustration. 

[ArticMine]

Yes; however I usually sync it and I keep several up to date copies on various computers.

[franky1]

... remember 1 BTC in your wallet is worth more than 2 on the Blockchain !

Secure your private keys noobs !

remember ALL bitcoins are measured ON the blockchain..

thus, to clarify the OP's scentiments

1 BTC linked to your solely known private key, is worth more than 10 BTC on a third party service held private key

[shorena]

-snip-
Thanks for voting and remember 1 BTC in your wallet is worth more than 2 on the Blockchain !
-snip-

That made me chuckle a bit.

Anyway, on topic. Yes, I downloaded the whole blokchain several times on several systems. It took my VPS 4-5 days with a 100Mbit/s conneciton, but its bottleneck is the CPU. A 4. Gen i5 with SSD on 32MBit/s downstream took ~a day IIRC. I also started syncing an old single core laptop for armory but stopped after a few days because it was not making much progress with the verification and database building for armory.

[Amph]

no, but i've done my backup(actually i need to re-do it because this thing always grows more), so i have my personal blockchain secured and i can easily sync after  asecure erase

[ranochigo]

The blockchain doesn't take more than a few hours to download since it can do so simultaneously from several peers. Bitcoin does have to verify each block individually when synchronizing and this can take sometime. It wouldn't help if your disk read/write speed is very slow.

Yes, before I thought core is the most secure wallet,  I downloaded the whole blockchain. But now No, It is wasting my time! I need to use the wallet whenever I need! electrum is secure enough which I am using ! It is able to serve my requirement .

Does it keep your keys on your own machine ?

I don't trust online wallets.. avoid them guys.
Some wallets are a mix of different tech eh

Electrum is not an online wallet, it is a desktop wallet and according to me the safest one, you can keep two copies of it, one for cold storage and one for hot wallet on the desktop and you can spend funds from the cold storage by transferring the signed transactions and broadcasting them from your desktop wallet, the keys of your cold storage can remain cold and safe from hackers.

As for the main question, no, I haven't downloaded the whole blockchain, it's too big and would cost me a lot of bandwidth.

In terms of security and convenience for online desktop wallets, Electrum is the best. However, a common weakness that SPV client shares is that they trust miners fully. If you take in large amount of transaction volumes (operating a business), you may need to consider shifting to another wallet. SPV client trust miners to enforce the network rules and this was a problem during the fork in the 4th July fork.

[LuckyYOU]

No I haven't I don't think my internet would be able to handle it nor my computers.

It will take a couple of days if I ever did try to download it.

[ranochigo]

-snip-

no, but i've done my backup(actually i need to re-do it because this thing always grows more), so i have my personal blockchain secured and i can easily sync after  asecure erase

I'm sure verification process of your blockchain backup & sync with network will take few days

Nope. If you transfer the entire data directory. The chainstate gets copied over with the data directory and Bitcoin Core do not need to validate the previous block again. After a short initial verification, Bitcoin Core will start and you need to synchronize to the latest block. This will be significantly faster though.

You will still need to copy over your updated wallet.dat though.

[bearex]

No, didnt even download it, it is too big IMO. So i just use MultiBit instead

[1Referee]

I have installed the full blockchain on several devices in my house and it takes around 1 day to get the full blockchain on my HDD. I need the full blockchain as I like running a full node to support the network.

[bering]

no i didn't ever do that and for this moment i still use online wallet for save my bitcoin because i never have huge bitcoin so i think that isn't necessary

[randy8777]

no i didn't ever do that and for this moment i still use online wallet for save my bitcoin because i never have huge bitcoin so i think that isn't necessary

it doesn't matter how much you have. offline storage is the best storage. do you have more or less than 1 bitcoin? something that has not much value now will have a lot value after a few years. better safe than sorry.

[McCombstech]

I'm still holding off on doing this until I can find a way to get more space available.