Thinking of downloading Bitcoin Core

[Cyaren]

Hi all i got a new pc recently and was thinking of downloading bitcoin core, whats the pro's and con's?

try light version of bitcoin wallets, bitcoin core is heavy wallet for new users, you will need to download a big blockchain(over 45GB in size) need a good PC to run this wallet and sometime you may need to reindex whole blockchain or rescan wallet that takes too much time.good thing is its core wallet and more secure then some of wallet.you can try electrum,multibit etc

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[cellard]

Hi all i got a new pc recently and was thinking of downloading bitcoin core, whats the pro's and con's?

You should by all means download Bitcoin Core and run it for as long as possible (leave it open if you leave and you leave your computer turn on). By doing this you are helping the network. It is because of people running nodes that Bitcoin can function in the first place let's not forget that, so the more nodes the better.

[HostSurf]

I haven't read any bad reviews about it just yet.
Seems to be pretty secure, but if you're really going to use a wallet on your pc,
I would suggest not to use it that often if it's only for your wallet

[pereira4]

I haven't read any bad reviews about it just yet.
Seems to be pretty secure, but if you're really going to use a wallet on your pc,
I would suggest not to use it that often if it's only for your wallet

Why not tho? Bitcoin Core is probably the safest desktop wallet possible. It has inbuilt encryption, it never shows the private key unless you really want to, and most importantly it has the actual entire blockchain saved locally. I don't think it can get any safer if you want to have a wallet in your computer.

[Mickeyb]

Hi all i got a new pc recently and was thinking of downloading bitcoin core, whats the pro's and con's?

You should by all means download Bitcoin Core and run it for as long as possible (leave it open if you leave and you leave your computer turn on). By doing this you are helping the network. It is because of people running nodes that Bitcoin can function in the first place let's not forget that, so the more nodes the better.

Yes, exactly this! And if you have a powerful enough computer OP and you are saving your bitcoins in the cold storage as you have written why just not do it and help the network?!

With your configuration, you are not limited on resources. Your computer will work just fine even with the Core running! You will be doing a good deed for a community!

[Vivlore]

Hi all i got a new pc recently and was thinking of downloading bitcoin core, whats the pro's and con's?

You should by all means download Bitcoin Core and run it for as long as possible (leave it open if you leave and you leave your computer turn on). By doing this you are helping the network. It is because of people running nodes that Bitcoin can function in the first place let's not forget that, so the more nodes the better.

Yes, exactly this! And if you have a powerful enough computer OP and you are saving your bitcoins in the cold storage as you have written why just not do it and help the network?!

With your configuration, you are not limited on resources. Your computer will work just fine even with the Core running! You will be doing a good deed for a community!

If you have a powerful computer, the Core will use very little CPU power. So it is better to run the wallet.

[whizz94]

If in doubt, a fast wallet such as Electrum will suffice for you to keep your bitcoins safe and do your transactions.
You might want that anyway as it does not need to be on 24/7 to avoid a week of downtime every now and then while resynching an off month.

Jan 2016 specs for bitcoin-qt are :
>=66GB for the /.bitcoin/ storage directory
>=2-core x 1.8GHz cpu, 4-core i5 or higher desirable
>=1 GB RAM with plenty of RAM desirable
>=20 days on per month

You can have both, running a bitcoin core full node to support the blockchain whenever your computer happens to be on all week and using a fast wallet to do most of your bitcoin transactions.

You might also want to read up on some business last year about BIP101 and 8MB blocks.  The bitcoin core version 0.11.0 and onwards qt full nodes might not compile from source and might contain hardcode to specifically exclude the writers of BIP101 bitcoin core xt version from their previous responsibility of checking the source code.  Whether you picked a bitcoin-qt xt node or the won't-change bitcoin-core bitcoin-qt creates a vote in the xt vs not xt decision.  Cast that vote if you have an opinion.  Best to stay with a fast wallet, as those do not vote, if in doubt.

[helloeverybody]

If in doubt, a fast wallet such as Electrum will suffice for you to keep your bitcoins safe and do your transactions.
You might want that anyway as it does not need to be on 24/7 to avoid a week of downtime every now and then while resynching an off month.

Jan 2016 specs for bitcoin-qt are :
>=66GB for the /.bitcoin/ storage directory
>=2-core x 1.8GHz cpu, 4-core i5 or higher desirable
>=1 GB RAM with plenty of RAM desirable
>=20 days on per month

You can have both, running a bitcoin core full node to support the blockchain whenever your computer happens to be on all week and using a fast wallet to do most of your bitcoin transactions.

You might also want to read up on some business last year about BIP101 and 8MB blocks.  The bitcoin core version 0.11.0 and onwards qt full nodes might not compile from source and might contain hardcode to specifically exclude the writers of BIP101 bitcoin core xt version from their previous responsibility of checking the source code.  Whether you picked a bitcoin-qt xt node or the won't-change bitcoin-core bitcoin-qt creates a vote in the xt vs not xt decision.  Cast that vote if you have an opinion.  Best to stay with a fast wallet, as those do not vote, if in doubt.

Im running bitcoin core and data directry takes up 59 gb. I wonder why the difference in size. anyway i know there not that much of a benefit in running a node but if noboddy helped in running them then bitcoin as awhole would be in a pretty bad way. If you have the hdd space and enough resources to spare to run it then why not?

[notaek]

Bitcoin Core:-

Pros:

• This wallet gives you full control over your bitcoins. This means no third party can freeze or lose your funds. You are however still responsible for securing and backing up your wallet.

• This wallet is a full node that validates and relays transactions on the Bitcoin network. This means no trust in a third party is required when verifying payments. Full nodes provide the highest level of security and are essential to protecting the network.

• This wallet is open-source and built deterministically. This means any developer in the world can audit the code and make sure the final software isn't hiding any secrets.

• This wallet makes it harder to spy on your balance and payments by rotating addresses. You should still take care to use a new Bitcoin address each time you request payment.

• This wallet does not disclose information to peers on the network when receiving or sending a payment.

• This wallet lets you setup and use Tor as a proxy to prevent attackers or Internet service providers from associating your payments with your IP address.

Cons:

• This wallet require more space (over 60~65GB), bandwidth, and a longer initial synchronization time.

• This wallet can be loaded on computers which are vulnerable to malware. (Securing your computer, using a strong passphrase, moving most of your funds to cold storage, or enabling two-factor authentication can make it harder to steal your bitcoins.)

[whizz94]

enough resources to spare to run it then why not?

My /.bitcoin/ grew a bit unexpectedly during one of the -reindex kerfuffles a while ago.  Those can take days.

The xt vs not-xt vote hardcoded into your choice of full node client is something which you want to get correct if you have the long term interests of bitcoin as one of your motivators.
By all means have a full node if you really have spare capacity for that, but you probably do want to keep your pocket money in a fast wallet which won't be offline for a bad week.