Why is the size of data of Bitcoin client is about 10 GB?

[blackcoin]

According to the paper of satoshi,

If we suppose blocks are generated every 10 minutes, 80 bytes * 6 * 24 * 365 = 4.2MB per year.

The blocks are generated about every 10 minutes all the time. And it has only been 4 years since it launched in 2009, it should be 16.8 MB. Where did I go wrong?

[greyhawk]

Blocks are way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaay larger than 80 bytes.

Remember that Bitcoin was never intended to be used. It is a proof of concept. An experiment that people latched onto waaaaaaay before a derivative was developed that would be a viable solution to bitcoins problems.

[mprep]

Blocks are way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaay larger than 80 bytes.

Remember that Bitcoin was never intended to be used. It is a proof of concept. An experiment that people latched onto waaaaaaay before a derivative was developed that would be a viable solution to bitcoins problems.

So Bitcoin caught on too fast. Never thought that the size of the blockchain could have been caused by this. Weird...

[CasinoBit]

If proper pruning is implemented one could decrease the size of the chain drastically since there is no need to keep old transactions that have been completely spent (or perhaps just 2 levels "up" to be safe).

[Meni Rosenfeld]

According to the paper of satoshi,

If we suppose blocks are generated every 10 minutes, 80 bytes * 6 * 24 * 365 = 4.2MB per year.

The blocks are generated about every 10 minutes all the time. And it has only been 4 years since it launched in 2009, it should be 16.8 MB. Where did I go wrong?

Satoshi was talking here about block headers stored in RAM and SPV clients. Not storing complete blocks on disk.

Indeed, full nodes don't need to keep 10GB in RAM, and you can already use an SPV client such as Multibit.

[tutkarz]

If proper pruning is implemented one could decrease the size of the chain drastically since there is no need to keep old transactions that have been completely spent (or perhaps just 2 levels "up" to be safe).

that would be good for anonymity also

[Terk]

You skipped a very important part from the paragraph you quoted:

A block header with no transactions would be about 80 bytes. If we suppose blocks are generated every 10 minutes, 80 bytes * 6 * 24 * 365 = 4.2MB per year.

It wasn't written regarding raw/total blockchain size but regarding reclaiming disk space by compacting old blocks. The calculation was made to get the size of only block headers (without transactions) and see how big they would be and if it would be feasible to keep all block headers in memory (in case if that would be required).

[CasinoBit]

If proper pruning is implemented one could decrease the size of the chain drastically since there is no need to keep old transactions that have been completely spent (or perhaps just 2 levels "up" to be safe).

that would be good for anonymity also

Well not really, it would just prevent the average Joe from acquiring this information, it would be monopolized.

[Elwar]

You skipped a very important part from the paragraph you quoted:

A block header with no transactions would be about 80 bytes. If we suppose blocks are generated every 10 minutes, 80 bytes * 6 * 24 * 365 = 4.2MB per year.

It wasn't written regarding raw/total blockchain size but regarding reclaiming disk space by compacting old blocks. The calculation was made to get the size of only block headers (without transactions) and see how big they would be and if it would be feasible to keep all block headers in memory (in case if that would be required).

This.

Do you seriously believe that the phone apps are 10GB?

[agnostic98]

the block headers designed to be 80 bytes so that "lite" clients can be built and only need to store the necessary transactions for verification purposes. But in general right now I think blocks can be up to 1mb each.

[Gabi]

According to the paper of satoshi,

If we suppose blocks are generated every 10 minutes, 80 bytes * 6 * 24 * 365 = 4.2MB per year.

The blocks are generated about every 10 minutes all the time. And it has only been 4 years since it launched in 2009, it should be 16.8 MB. Where did I go wrong?

That would be a block with 0 transactions