[ANN] Bitcoin blockchain data torrent

[Sukrim]

• Post a new torrent on a weekly basis (or some other viable interval) automaticly based on a bootstrap.dat maintained by a node running on the server.

What do you think, will there be enough users of a service like this? Or will a solution like this thread in combination with a 6 month interval suffice?

If you keep updating the file it will break people seeding it and so you'll never have a big distribution network.

Offer an RSS feed as well, so seeders would just need to clear old torrents from time to time... [/list]

[e4xit]

So I am in the process of downloading the latest version of this torrent now, but still slightly confused as to how I use it...

I am using Bitcoin Qt 0.8.3 Beta, so it should support auto-import of this file, right?

Just a little unsure of where to put it, and if I need to delete the folders "blocks" and/or "Chainstate" and the files "db.log", "debug.log" or "peers.dat"?

I am on OSX so presume that it is going somewhere inside the /Users/will/Library/Application Support/ folder?

Thanks

[dserrano5]

So I am in the process of downloading the latest version of this torrent now, but still slightly confused as to how I use it...

I am using Bitcoin Qt 0.8.3 Beta, so it should support auto-import of this file, right?

Just a little unsure of where to put it, and if I need to delete the folders "blocks" and/or "Chainstate" and the files "db.log", "debug.log" or "peers.dat"?

Put it anywhere, then run bitcoin with the "-loadblock=/path/to/file" parameter.

[e4xit]

Ok thanks. Any idea on how to do that?  

Edit: I am on OSX, I think I could do it on windows, but not particularly familiar with terminal and how to run apps from it with parameters in OSX

[jgarzik]

bootstrap.dat goes into the data directory.  The same directory as debug.log and peers.dat are located.

[e4xit]

Thanks for replying guys, although, the two bits of info were a little bit conflicting:

Put it anywhere, then run bitcoin with the "-loadblock=/path/to/file" parameter.

bootstrap.dat goes into the data directory.  The same directory as debug.log and peers.dat are located.

I think Jeff's is just the 'safe' way, or for if you are running an older version of Bitcoin-QT...


If anyone else gets stuck like me, what I did was:

OSX using Bitcoin-QT versions 0.7.1+

1) Open a terminal window
2) Open a finder window.
3) In the finder window, navigate to /Applications/ and the ctrl+click on 'Bitcoin-QT' and choose 'Show package contents'
4) Navigate to /Contents/MacOS/ and then drag the file in there ('Bitcoin-QT') into the terminal window
5) add a space into the terminal window, after the 'Bitcoin-QT' file, then type:

-loadblock=

So in the terminal window you will have something like this:

"Your-iMac:~ user$ /Applications/Bitcoin-Qt.app/Contents/MacOS/Bitcoin-Qt -loadblock="

Dont press anything else yet...

6) Next, with the finder window selected again, navigate to the location of your 'Bootstrap.dat' file
7) Drag this file into the terminal window, so that it adds it onto the end of the command, which will look something like:

"Your-iMac:~ user$ /Applications/Bitcoin-Qt.app/Contents/MacOS/Bitcoin-Qt -loadblock=/path/to/file"

Hit enter to run.

Hope that this helps someone else

[jgarzik]

Simply dropping bootstrap.dat into the folder is the safe, easy way.  After the import is complete, the file is renamed to ensure it is not re-imported over and over again.

-loadblock is fine too, but requires a bit of extra work on the part of the user.

[e4xit]

Will Bitcoin-QT versions 0.7.1+ recognise that the file is there automagically without having to run the binary with the parameter '-loadblock='?

Also, just out of interest, does Bitcoin-QT import the blocks from disk using just a single CPU core?

I am just wondering as I have an i7 (3.1 GHz) CPU, but activity monitor doesn't show more than 70% CPU (max is 800%)... If it is single core, is there any way to increase this?

Thanks

[snakee]

Hey

Would someone be so nice and explain the following to a beginner ?  ----"-loadblock=/path/to/file"----

Everything till the = i understood and i guessed, that the "path" must be the path to the bootstrap.dat ?! after that im not sure what to insert at "to" if it isnt just a to that stays there and which file is ment at the end ?

It would be very nice if someone could help me out.

Thank you very much in advance

[jgarzik]

Hey

Would someone be so nice and explain the following to a beginner ?  ----"-loadblock=/path/to/file"----

Just drop bootstrap.dat into your bitcoin data directory, restart Bitcoin-Qt, and do not be confused by other, more complicated instructions.

[snakee]

Well, thats a way i understand instantly

downloaded the whole chain over night but next time ill know what to do, thx

but maybe someone who is bored could explain whats ment above, i like to get more knowledge im the kind of person that needs to know anything i didnt understood

greetz from germany

[deepceleron]

Well, thats a way i understand instantly

downloaded the whole chain over night but next time ill know what to do, thx

but maybe someone who is bored could explain whats ment above, i like to get more knowledge im the kind of person that needs to know anything i didnt understood

greetz from germany

A little searching might get you the explanation (which links here), I'll post this linking there:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51456.0

[jgarzik]

Updated block chain torrent to height 250,000, coinciding with a recently commited checkpoint in the bitcoind source code.

Existing seeders, please update by simply swapping out the old torrent file for the new torrent file.  After restarting your torrent client, you should already have ~85% of the new bootstrap.dat.

New seeders:  We always need more seeders, in every country of the world, to help spread the block chain and speed downloads.  Ideally, we have a large swarm of seeders, that burst to downloads at maximum download speed, and then remain idle the rest of the time.

Read the OP for magnet link and torrent details.  Ask questions.

[jgarzik]

Forgot to mention...  the following python util, linearize.py, was checked into the bitcoin repo today:

     https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/tree/master/contrib/linearize

This tool may be used to recreate bootstrap.dat byte-for-byte identical with the bootstrap.dat in this torrent.

If you are running bitcoind locally, create bootstrap.dat locally, then start seeding the torrent immediately at 100%!

[Ego]

Thanks for the D/L much quicker than going through QT

[jgarzik]

Bump, due to renewed interest.

[pedrog]

Bump, due to renewed interest.

You have my seed, sir!

[acidu]

testing this thing now... will come back for detailes... hmm.. if all OK... count me in for seed

[BaalMcKloud]

100Mbit/s FR SeedBox added

[DeaDTerra]

For some reason I can't get this to work.
Can someone kind explain the steps I need to take from that I download the file to that I import the block into the wallet?
So far it doesn't seem to recognize the file until I shut the wallet off and then I get an error message.
//DeaDTerra