Usable pruned wallet release date?

[hamiltino]

Does anyone have an eta on when usable pruned core wallets will be available to use? send and recieve.

[unamis76]

No release date so far, only that it will probably come out in the next release

[shorena]

AFAIK that comes with 0.12 which is to be released next month[1], unless something happens.

[1] http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2015-September/011182.html

[hamiltino]

Ok that would be awesome if it did.

[thejaytiesto]

I still haven't understood the implications of running a pruned walled vs a full blockchain wallet. What are exactly the tradeoffs? Because im sure Bitcoin is not as secure if you run it in pruned mode. From my understanding, the pruned size will be of around 1 GB of blockchain, which is great, but I want to know if it's worth it or not safety wise.

[shorena]

I still haven't understood the implications of running a pruned walled vs a full blockchain wallet. What are exactly the tradeoffs? Because im sure Bitcoin is not as secure if you run it in pruned mode. From my understanding, the pruned size will be of around 1 GB of blockchain, which is great, but I want to know if it's worth it or not safety wise.

You can set the size, but the minimum is ~1 GB IIRC. The main implication I see is that if you need to rescan the blockchain for some reason you have to redownload it, verify it, drop it. If you have a full copy you can do this locally. A pruned node is not less secure because it verified all data locally, it just does not keep the data. Its also not as helpfull to the network as an unpruned node as you do not relay old blocks and thus cant help others sync up.

[Lauda]

You can set the size, but the minimum is ~1 GB IIRC. The main implication I see is that if you need to rescan the blockchain for some reason you have to redownload it, verify it, drop it. If you have a full copy you can do this locally. A pruned node is not less secure because it verified all data locally, it just does not keep the data. Its also not as helpfull to the network as an unpruned node as you do not relay old blocks and thus cant help others sync up.

Correct. Basically the most likely effect that this is going to have in an total increase in the number of nodes. However, it might be a bit problematic if a lot of full nodes switch to pruned ones. I do also wonder if there would be anything bad (in comparison to the current state of the network) if almost everyone was running pruned nodes?

Ok that would be awesome if it did.

It is highly likely. The only unknown factor ATM is the exact date of release, but the feature should come.

[shorena]

You can set the size, but the minimum is ~1 GB IIRC. The main implication I see is that if you need to rescan the blockchain for some reason you have to redownload it, verify it, drop it. If you have a full copy you can do this locally. A pruned node is not less secure because it verified all data locally, it just does not keep the data. Its also not as helpfull to the network as an unpruned node as you do not relay old blocks and thus cant help others sync up.

Correct. Basically the most likely effect that this is going to have in an total increase in the number of nodes. However, it might be a bit problematic if a lot of full nodes switch to pruned ones. I do also wonder if there would be anything bad (in comparison to the current state of the network) if almost everyone was running pruned nodes?

Ok that would be awesome if it did.

It is highly likely. The only unknown factor ATM is the exact date of release, but the feature should come.

Well if a high number of nodes would be pruned it would be very difficult to sync a new node (pruned or not). If you consider that you only establish 8 connections and while syncing the nodes dont seem to create more connections, you will need at least 1 not pruned node out of 8 to sync.

[Lauda]

Well if a high number of nodes would be pruned it would be very difficult to sync a new node (pruned or not). If you consider that you only establish 8 connections and while syncing the nodes dont seem to create more connections, you will need at least 1 not pruned node out of 8 to sync.

Why is that? If you are trying to run a pruned node yourself, wouldn't it be the same as the normal syncing process that we have today? Aren't you just trying to download the latest data which other pruned nodes have?

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Does anyone have an eta on when usable pruned core wallets will be available to use? send and recieve.

Anybody willing to explain what the hell a pruned wallet is?

Why would anybody want one vs a standard core wallet?

Thanks in advance!

[shorena]

Well if a high number of nodes would be pruned it would be very difficult to sync a new node (pruned or not). If you consider that you only establish 8 connections and while syncing the nodes dont seem to create more connections, you will need at least 1 not pruned node out of 8 to sync.

Why is that? If you are trying to run a pruned node yourself, wouldn't it be the same as the normal syncing process that we have today? Aren't you just trying to download the latest data which other pruned nodes have?

No you need to download all data first so you dont have to trust other nodes that their data is correct. Once you build your database you dont store the blocks though.

Does anyone have an eta on when usable pruned core wallets will be available to use? send and recieve.

Anybody willing to explain what the hell a pruned wallet is?

A pruned node is a full node that does not store all blocks. E.g. my full node[1]'s disk is no longer large enough to hold the full blockchain, so I only store 40 GB. It still relays newly found blocks and all valid transactions, but you can no longer sync old data from it. Not even the 40 GB I stored. Since its a server anyway and I wouldnt run a wallet on it so I dont care much, but Im in contact with some ISPs for a new server with a larger disk.

Why would anybody want one vs a standard core wallet?

Thanks in advance!

Small disk, still want to verify all data.

[1] http://213.165.91.169/

[Lauda]

No you need to download all data first so you dont have to trust other nodes that their data is correct. Once you build your database you dont store the blocks though.

So let me get this straight, you download all data and verify it after which you can choose to store X amount of GB and relay only that data to other nodes? Initially I thought it was going to work differently, but this does make more sense if it is the case. I haven't done enough reading recently and I'm sure that many understood the concept differently.
Update:
Understood, thanks.

[shorena]

No you need to download all data first so you dont have to trust other nodes that their data is correct. Once you build your database you dont store the blocks though.

So let me get this straight, you download all data and verify it after which you can choose to store X amount of GB and relay only that data to other nodes?

Almost, you relay nothing though. Well nothing but transactions and new blocks, new as in the very latest.

Initially I thought it was going to work differently, but this does make more sense if it is the case. I haven't done enough reading recently and I'm sure that many understood the concept differently.

I also hoped that I would be able to share the 40GB I have stored, but I cant. This would allow pruned nodes to still be used for syncing. Several pruned nodes could together still have the entire blocks, each node a part. Im not sure if something like this is planed for the future.