Bitcoin core 0.15.1

[hugeblack]

I used blockchain.info wallet for a long time now try to use a new one so click the link [News: Latest stable version of Bitcoin Core: 0.15.1  [Torrent].]

download core for my windows 8.1 OS. and open it

have a problem " synchronizing with  network " so I left my pc running with 1 MB internet speed, more than 10 hours and till now get the same problem.

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[jackg]

I used blockchain.info wallet for a long time now try to use a new one so click the link [News: Latest stable version of Bitcoin Core: 0.15.1  [Torrent].]

download core for my windows 8.1 OS. and open it

have a problem " synchronizing with  network " so I left my pc running with 1 MB internet speed, more than 10 hours and till now get the same problem.

It's probably not going to be able to downlad the blockchain at any fast speed it'll take about a week to do it with the program constantly unning - depending on your computers' speed. I suggest you try to use an SPV wallet like (electrum.org/#download) which does not requie a full download of the blockchain and will run within a few minutes most to synctronise with the network and boot.


EDIT: the software even tells you it should take a week to sync

[jnano]

That's the way it works. It's especially slow on HDDs.

It will go quicker if you put the data files on an SSD, or temporarily use a RAM drive (requires extra software, and don't forget to copy it back to permanent storage).

Do you mean a 1MByte connection, or 1Mbit? A 1Mbit connection might be a bottleneck.

[cellard]

That's the way it works. It's especially slow on HDDs.

It will go quicker if you put the data files on an SSD, or temporarily use a RAM drive (requires extra software, and don't forget to copy it back to permanent storage).

Do you mean a 1MByte connection, or 1Mbit? A 1Mbit connection might be a bottleneck.

To be safe, you need a good 1TB of space. As of right now, we are looking at a linear increase of 1MB per block, which is pretty viable if you look at this:

https://blockchain.info/en/charts/blocks-size?timespan=2years

On 2016 January 1 we had 53,7 GB

On 2017 January 1 we had 96,3 GB

So we are growing about 40 GB per year

Currently we are at 144,4 GB at almost 2017 completed.. so we have gone up higher than the last year. I guess it fluctuates a bit when more periods of full blocks in a row happen.

But the point is, if the blocksize stays at 1MB (hopefully) 1TB would serve you well for following 5 years at least.

The problem: 1TB SSD are pretty expensive and most people don't have the money to invest on it. If you buy a smaller one, when it gets filled, you have to re-sync from day 1 again since apparently you can't keep growing the blockchain on split drivers which sucks but that's how it is.

This means that you must try to buy a harddrive as big as possible to delay as much as possible having to re-sync from the begining. 1TB seems like the best number/price ratio now if you can afford it.

The 1MB connection is definitely a bottleneck too, you should get a better internet connection.

[jnano]

You don't have to resync from scratch when you upgrade your HDD/SDD, just copy the files!

The current increase is about 52GB/year (144MB/day), and if SegWit is fully adopted it's going to be soon twice that much.
But I bet non-hardcore users will use pruned mode, so space isn't an issue.

[cellard]

You don't have to resync from scratch when you upgrade your HDD/SDD, just copy the files!

The current increase is about 52GB/year (144MB/day), and if SegWit is fully adopted it's going to be soon twice that much.
But I bet non-hardcore users will use pruned mode, so space isn't an issue.

it is still an issue. Even if you are using a pruned node, the first time you boot it you must sync the entire blockchain, then close your client and start in pruned mode, so at least the first time you start from scratch each time you are going to be sure that you can handle the entire blockchain on a single hard disk.

Also if you are using a software that is not infected with NSA malware you are most likely using a rather old linux thinkpad an opteron or anything where you can flash the bios, which means your hardware is going to be pretty slow when validating all these GB of data, so even if you copy the files it is still a really slow process.

And do segwit blocks actually make blocks higher? I thought the blocks would still be 1MB, but they can fill up to 4MB worth of transactions.

[ranochigo]

it is still an issue. Even if you are using a pruned node, the first time you boot it you must sync the entire blockchain, then close your client and start in pruned mode, so at least the first time you start from scratch each time you are going to be sure that you can handle the entire blockchain on a single hard disk.

Really? If the wallet file is not changed, then you don't have to reindex the whole blockchain. The whole resync process is only to get the transactions for addresses that were not previously in the wallet. CMIIW, that's my personal experience anyways.

Also if you are using a software that is not infected with NSA malware you are most likely using a rather old linux thinkpad an opteron or anything where you can flash the bios, which means your hardware is going to be pretty slow when validating all these GB of data, so even if you copy the files it is still a really slow process.

If you copy the files, whether its pruned or not, you don't have to verify or resync it all over again.

The problem: 1TB SSD are pretty expensive and most people don't have the money to invest on it. If you buy a smaller one, when it gets filled, you have to re-sync from day 1 again since apparently you can't keep growing the blockchain on split drivers which sucks but that's how it is.

I don't get why would anyone want to use an SSD for the Blockchain. It's just a waste of money since you're just synchronizing it once. SSD might be slightly less unreliable than traditional HDD, if there is too much write and read operations.

[jnano]

Even if you are using a pruned node, the first time you boot it you must sync the entire blockchain, then close your client and start in pruned mode

You can start in pruned mode since day one. You don't have to store it at all.

if you copy the files it is still a really slow process.

The software will not do any validation after you copy the files to a new storage drive. It's not aware of the drive change.

And do segwit blocks actually make blocks higher? I thought the blocks would still be 1MB, but they can fill up to 4MB worth of transactions.

Old client software will only download 1MB per block, but new SegWit-aware clients will download the full SegWit block data, which can potentially be more than 1MB. The estimated figures I saw for a practical size were about 2MB or a bit more. It might be technically possible to create 4MB SegWit blocks, but what I read suggests it won't be useful for transactions of the type the network is currently used for.

I don't get why would anyone want to use an SSD for the Blockchain. It's just a waste of money since you're just synchronizing it once.

The blocks are less of an issue. The UTXO set is, at least with the inefficient disk access patterns of the current version of Core. It might be related to using pruned mode, but I get the feeling the disk I/O inefficiencies go beyond that. If the issues are fixed, I think indeed HDDs will suffice.

SSD might be slightly less unreliable than traditional HDD, if there is too much write and read operations.

I don't think there's enough writing to matter to SSDs, but I haven't checked. Reads don't matter.

[cellard]

it is still an issue. Even if you are using a pruned node, the first time you boot it you must sync the entire blockchain, then close your client and start in pruned mode, so at least the first time you start from scratch each time you are going to be sure that you can handle the entire blockchain on a single hard disk.

Really? If the wallet file is not changed, then you don't have to reindex the whole blockchain. The whole resync process is only to get the transactions for addresses that were not previously in the wallet. CMIIW, that's my personal experience anyways.

Also if you are using a software that is not infected with NSA malware you are most likely using a rather old linux thinkpad an opteron or anything where you can flash the bios, which means your hardware is going to be pretty slow when validating all these GB of data, so even if you copy the files it is still a really slow process.

If you copy the files, whether its pruned or not, you don't have to verify or resync it all over again.

The problem: 1TB SSD are pretty expensive and most people don't have the money to invest on it. If you buy a smaller one, when it gets filled, you have to re-sync from day 1 again since apparently you can't keep growing the blockchain on split drivers which sucks but that's how it is.

I don't get why would anyone want to use an SSD for the Blockchain. It's just a waste of money since you're just synchronizing it once. SSD might be slightly less unreliable than traditional HDD, if there is too much write and read operations.

If you have 500 GB for a hard disk and it gets filled, then you have to buy a bigger hard disk and resync from scratch. What's not to understand here?

Also to use prune mode, you have to have synced the full blockchain once.

SSD's are better than HDD precisely because it takes less damage due the high rate of i/o operations as there is no physical movement. Everytime you load Bitcoin Core, assuming you boot it daily to keep it synced, you have to download the past 24 hours worth of blocks and validate them, this can take a while, it takes like an hour on my old quadcore + HDD.

[ranochigo]

If you have 500 GB for a hard disk and it gets filled, then you have to buy a bigger hard disk and resync from scratch. What's not to understand here?

Just copy it over to your new drive. You don't have to synchronize it again.

You only have to resync from scratch when you are using a prune node and you added a new wallet file/address.

SSD's are better than HDD precisely because it takes less damage due the high rate of i/o operations as there is no physical movement. Everytime you load Bitcoin Core

Oops sorry. You're correct.

, assuming you boot it daily to keep it synced, you have to download the past 24 hours worth of blocks and validate them, this can take a while, it takes like an hour on my old quadcore + HDD.

Is your HDD I/O maxed out? Normally, the only thing being maxed out would probably be your CPU and that's the main bottleneck. You can just increase the dbcache; it would help to reduce your HDD as a bottleneck.