Bitcoin taking up 5.6gb on my computer

[Monster Tent]

Unless we ban gambling and interest, BTC like fiat currency is doooomed. 

DOS-like constructs such as 'satoshi dice' will just shift power to the 'money changers' where it can be more easily pilfered a bit at a time if not flat out stolen.  Not being a gambler myself, it is easy to hypothesis that that is part of the goal of 'satoshi dice'.  It would be really interesting to know how 'Satoshi' would like his name pinned on this construct.

OTOH, 'satoshi dice' really is something which is getting the attention of the more philosophical and technically capable of the crypto-currency community.  On balance, I personally sense that it is a positive contribution at an opportune time for that reason alone.  But then again my attention has wandered away from crypto-currencies generally of late so I've paid even less attention to it than I normally would.

I think one of the reasons SatoshiDice is used so hugely as it is, is because there is really not very much you can DO with Bitcoins once you have them other than gambling.

You can get them stolen which seems a more likely outcome when using bitcoin.

[1714108303]

1714108303

[niko]

I think one of the reasons SatoshiDice is used so hugely as it is, is because there is really not very much you can DO with Bitcoins once you have them other than gambling.

If there were more "things to do," blockchain would be even larger than it is today.  Either way, several GB today is not a problem in terms of cost of storage. The problem is the initial download simply because we are not upfront with the newbies, so they get disappointed. Direct download links on the main page of bitcoin.org do not contain any explanations and warnings, and should be removed. Download page contains an overview of various clients, which is good, but points should be bulleted, and warning about initial download more prominent. That way there would be no bad surprises.

[crazyates]

Sure, 5.6GB is borderline acceptable, but what happens in a year when it's 10-20GB? My 120GB SSD isn't looking so hot. I'll have to upgrade my SSD cuz I'm already running out of room, and then I'll have to download the whole 20GB again.

Alternative: Is there a way to move the blockchain to a different spot? Maybe onto my 1TB external? And if I do decide to replace my OS drive, just point the new Bitcoin-qt at the old blockchain, and have it pick up where I left off?

[tvbcof]

DOS-like constructs such as 'satoshi dice' will just shift power to...

I think one of the reasons SatoshiDice is used so hugely as it is, is because there is really not very much you can DO with Bitcoins once you have them other than gambling.

You can get them stolen which seems a more likely outcome when using bitcoin.

Good points both and I cannot disagree.  Neither loss (or gain) from gambling has effected me, nor have I had anything stolen (except for a few BTC which I left at Bitcoinica and I anticipated that as the likely outcome.)

For my part, I'm content to just sit on the Bitcoin I have obtained.  For years.  The main danger I face is not being able to remember how to get them out of deep storage if/when I have reason to.  Because my assortment of computers and network gear changes, I'll probably have to build a machine upon which I wish to run bitcoind and try to get bitcoind to compile on it (and now download a rather massive amount of data) in order to re-activate my wallets.  Both of these are tedious.  Probably I'll end up doing in the cloud since by the time I get around to it, it will be wholly unworkable to run Bitcoin at home.

[niko]

Sure, 5.6GB is borderline acceptable, but what happens in a year when it's 10-20GB? My 120GB SSD isn't looking so hot. I'll have to upgrade my SSD cuz I'm already running out of room, and then I'll have to download the whole 20GB again.

Alternative: Is there a way to move the blockchain to a different spot? Maybe onto my 1TB external? And if I do decide to replace my OS drive, just point the new Bitcoin-qt at the old blockchain, and have it pick up where I left off?

You can point your client to any directory, just add a handle:

Code:

-datadir=<dir>         Specify data directory

See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128575.0

Someone more versed should explain if you should detach the database at shutdown before moving it.

[JWU42]

Sure, 5.6GB is borderline acceptable, but what happens in a year when it's 10-20GB? My 120GB SSD isn't looking so hot. I'll have to upgrade my SSD cuz I'm already running out of room, and then I'll have to download the whole 20GB again.

Alternative: Is there a way to move the blockchain to a different spot? Maybe onto my 1TB external? And if I do decide to replace my OS drive, just point the new Bitcoin-qt at the old blockchain, and have it pick up where I left off?

Yes - you can move the blockchain.  It is critical to be sure either bitcoin-qt or bitcoind is completely shutdown before you copy/move the blockchain.

I keep a copy on my server (running bitcoind) and one on ym desktop (bitcoin-qt on windows).  I have saved myself the headache of re-downloading when I corrupted my server copy by moving it over from my desktop.

2 local copies of the blockchain FTW 

[Hippie Tech]

Unless we ban gambling and interest, BTC like fiat currency is doooomed. 

DOS-like constructs such as 'satoshi dice' will just shift power to the 'money changers' where it can be more easily pilfered a bit at a time if not flat out stolen.  Not being a gambler myself, it is easy to hypothesis that that is part of the goal of 'satoshi dice'.  It would be really interesting to know how 'Satoshi' would like his name pinned on this construct.

OTOH, 'satoshi dice' really is something which is getting the attention of the more philosophical and technically capable of the crypto-currency community.  On balance, I personally sense that it is a positive contribution at an opportune time for that reason alone.  But then again my attention has wandered away from crypto-currencies generally of late so I've paid even less attention to it than I normally would.

I think one of the reasons SatoshiDice is used so hugely as it is, is because there is really not very much you can DO with Bitcoins once you have them other than gambling.

That is not surprising because degenerative practices like gambling and interest will kill innovation.

@tvbcof  If it was used to redistribute wealth, then I can see gambling a good thing for Bitcoin. Otherwise, BTC will be nothing more than a movement/fad unless we eliminate greed and usury.

I'm not here to make money. I'm here to be part of a revolution !

pEACe

[tvbcof]

That is not surprising because degenerative practices like gambling and interest will kill innovation.

@tvbcof  If it was used to redistribute wealth, then I can see gambling a good thing for Bitcoin. Otherwise, BTC will be nothing more than a movement/fad unless we eliminate greed and usury.

I'm not here to make money. I'm here to be part of a revolution !

pEACe

Amen brotha...I as well (though I'll not turn down a monetary reward if it pops up to be honest, and if I did decide to 'give some back' to the cause, it would probably be only a fraction.)

As for gambling, it's not my thing but many people and most cultures embrace it.  Some people have fun throwing away their money, and other people make a living off taking it.  I'm not going to produce any resistance simply on the basis that I find it rather ignorant and/or mildly exploitative.  If gambling kills Bitcoin than Bitcoin was simply not strong enough to face it's bigger challenges on the horizon anyway IMHO.

As for 'greed and usury'. I consider it an impossible task to 'stop'.  It's just the way humans are wired.  The best solution is to design things such that these unseemly aspects of human nature serve to strengthen the solution.  That's tricky, but I actually feel that the designer(s) of Bitcoin did a pretty fair job of doing just this in certain parts of the implementation.  Beyond that, Bitcoin seems pretty neutral.  There is a lot of latitude on how it could be used, and how revolutionary it turns out in practice is a huge question mark in my mind.

[gmaxwell]

Yes - you can move the blockchain.  It is critical to be sure either bitcoin-qt or bitcoind is completely shutdown before you copy/move the blockchain.

You also must start up with the detachdb argument set and shut down cleanly.

In any case, if the poster decides to delete it they should at least keep the wallet— which is small.  No one should ever delete a wallet which has ever had coins sent to it.  If nothing else, if you're _sure_ you don't want it— post it to the forum or email it to me or something.
 

[dree12]

Yes - you can move the blockchain.  It is critical to be sure either bitcoin-qt or bitcoind is completely shutdown before you copy/move the blockchain.

You also must start up with the detachdb argument set and shut down cleanly.

In any case, if the poster decides to delete it they should at least keep the wallet— which is small.  No one should ever delete a wallet which has ever had coins sent to it.  If nothing else, if you're _sure_ you don't want it— post it to the forum or email it to me or something.
 

Is it that important to conserve coins, even if it's just a few satoshis remaining?

[Raize]

Is it that important to conserve coins, even if it's just a few satoshis remaining?

I think gmaxwell is specifically referring to preventing instances like this:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=82600.0

If *someone* has the wallet, there's a higher chance that the person who lost their coin gets it returned.

[jago25_98]

Send coins to an offline savings address - brainwallet or similar in a safe.

But for miners, I think they have to have the blockchain locally for mining, no?

I still think it's a problem though. That blockchain is the distributed part of bitcoin. It needs to be distributed. Light clients are fine and dandy but without the blockchain, to take the RMS attitude, it's not really Bitcoin.

The hardware argument is partially valid but not complete because while capacities are expanding connectivity is a different story. There's been talk on this, especially in mobile internet like 3G in countries like the USA and the UK. Less so for mainland Europe and Asian countries like Korea.

Also, it's just good to be able to run bitcoin truly on many devices.

So I'm looking forward to Bitcoin 0.8 addressing this problem.