How far does that green line go?

[Jet Cash]

I'm downloading the blockchain atm, and the green line in what I assume is the progress bar is about 1mm thick. Has it got to go all the way to the end? At the current rate of progress, that will take about another two weeks of intermittent activity.

[OmegaStarScream]

I'm downloading the blockchain atm, and the green line in what I assume is the progress bar is about 1mm thick. Has it got to go all the way to the end? At the current rate of progress, that will take about another two weeks of intermittent activity.

I'm not sure how fast is your internet connection is but you should take in consideration that you are downloading a 40gb ~ file right now . So if you really don't want to wait ... you may want to switch to a Light-weight wallet like Electrum and you won't have to download the blockchain or anything else .

[Jet Cash]

I'm using free WiFi from a variety of locations. This is for a project of mine, so I guess I'll put up with the wait. I'm at MacDonalds at the moment, but I'll move to a local supermarkety shortly. It's not as bad as it sounds, as I can run the sync. as a background job, and do some other work whilst it's going on.

[helloeverybody]

yeah im afraid the blockchain is pretty massive now and between the download and the speed it takes to actually install it you might be waiting a while. At least once its done your contributing to the network.

[Duomo]

It took more than 1.5 days for Bitcoin Core to download all the transactions in the ledger for me. You are in a for quite a long wait.
The worst part is I have a rather newer computer ~3 years with a Quad-Core Processor and 8GBs of ram that still works like new and it still took over a day to download the 20+ Gigs of Data.  

[helloeverybody]

It took more than 1.5 days for Bitcoin Core to download all the transactions in the ledger for me. You are in a for quite a long wait.
The worst part is I have a rather newer computer ~3 years with a Quad-Core Processor and 8GBs of ram that still works like new and it still took over a day to download the 20+ Gigs of Data.  

A new computer wont help you download the data any quicker. you have to rely on your broadband speed for that so chances are its going to be slow. A faster pc will help everything install quicker though.

[Jet Cash]

It's a new computer with an Intel core i5 processor, so I don't think it's the machine that's slowing things down.

atm, I'm watching a film on utube via the same wifi (but using the Chromebook), so I expect that slows down the download.

[VirosaGITS]

It's a new computer with an Intel core i5 processor, so I don't think it's the machine that's slowing things down.

atm, I'm watching a film on utube via the same wifi (but using the Chromebook), so I expect that slows down the download.

Well its 50GB and every transaction need to be processed, one by one. Its massive, thats why you dont use Bitcoin core if you're just a regular user that need a wallet. You use SPV for that. Bitcoin core is just for running nodes at this point.

[Jet Cash]

I've switched WiFi and it's much faster. I think I'm the only one using the service available for a whole shopping precinct.

So, if I'm creating a node, how can I use that to gain more advantage than just a simple wallet service? I know that mining is no longer an economic option.

[Kwiksave]

I've switched WiFi and it's much faster. I think I'm the only one using the service available for a whole shopping precinct.

So, if I'm creating a node, how can I use that to gain more advantage than just a simple wallet service? I know that mining is no longer an economic option.

If you create a node, is there incentive (payment) for you to do so? Do you need static IP address?

[Jet Cash]

The only way I could use a static ip is if I hosted a domain and used that.

[Jet Cash]

WooHoo - fewer than 3 years to go.

[shorena]

I've switched WiFi and it's much faster. I think I'm the only one using the service available for a whole shopping precinct.

So, if I'm creating a node, how can I use that to gain more advantage than just a simple wallet service? I know that mining is no longer an economic option.

If you create a node, is there incentive (payment) for you to do so? Do you need static IP address?

No, there is no payment and no you dont need a static IP.

The only advantage running a full node is

#1 the good feeling that you are doing something for the network. It might be only a little as you are not constantly online and will most likely only connect to 8 other nodes, but you do your part.
#2 the good feeling that all data are verified locally and you do not rely on anyone else. No slim or light wallet implementation is without trust (either in the network or a server).

[strayanbit]

Yeah dw, mine took ages, its normal first time.

[Jet Cash]

Well I'm now into the last 2 years, and the traffic is stable and regular. It's running at about a tenth of the speed about 3 hors ago, so I guess there is a lot of daytime traffic right now. I might break off and use the shopping precinct link later this evening.

[helloeverybody]

Well I'm now into the last 2 years, and the traffic is stable and regular. It's running at about a tenth of the speed about 3 hors ago, so I guess there is a lot of daytime traffic right now. I might break off and use the shopping precinct link later this evening.

I had the whole lot saved to a separate hdd and transferred it over,  between transferring it and installing it Again it still took a few hours.  I've actually formatted now and need to download the whole thing again,  I've got 80meg download so I'm hoping it won't be too long.

[Jet Cash]

It's now saying that I have 1 year and 51 weeks left to download. I reckon that the green bar is about a fifth of the way across. There must have been a massive increase in use over the last few months. At this rate, blocks will be added at a faster rate than my download can grab them.

[moko666]

It's now saying that I have 1 year and 51 weeks left to download. I reckon that the green bar is about a fifth of the way across. There must have been a massive increase in use over the last few months. At this rate, blocks will be added at a faster rate than my download can grab them.

if you look at chart of bitcoin blockchain size
https://blockchain.info/de/charts/blocks-size

you will find it increased about 25GB this year oly and you have around 1year and 51 weeks left to download so it means you still need to download 80% of blockchain that may take long time based on your laptop and internet speed.if you don't have a special use of core wallet you should switch to light version wallets like multibit,electrum,armory

[Jet Cash]

Thanks for the advice, but this is a bit of a research project for me, so I will download the entire chain. I understand that I can copy it onto a USB stick or SD card, and then I can move it around between computers. I might see if I can use it on a chromebook or a mobile phone for example. The download is actually a background task despite all my chat about it, so it isn't taking up too much of my time. Of course there are no b/width or electricity costs associated with it either. I've already learnt a lot about Bitcoin, mainly as a result of replies on this board, and I've also discovered that another project idea of mine is not viable. This was using solar power for Bitcoin mining.

[strayanbit]

This was using solar power for Bitcoin mining.

Yeah, I saw a miner who uses free energy from a hydro-electric dam in Norway, and they probably dont need air-conditioning... just pop a window and its suddenly 0degrees!

As for mining in general, you need to get onto that guy who made the quantum computer.  He's clearly wasting his time with the mysteries of time and space.  If you could convince him to partner with you mining, you could clear the rest of the blocks by tea time.