Block chain size/storage and slow downloads for new users

[Akinale]

thank you for informations

[topman21]

Many thanks for the update lol.

[RappelzReborn]

Thank you for the updates guys

[BIT-Sharon]

What a specific and clear explanation. Thank you for writing this and provide such good information to us. 

[dromaczek]

Hi, if somebody want blockchain from yesterday, i share it via torrent (i have very fast 150Mb mb upload)...
LINK: http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/10928915/Bitcoin_blocks_blockchain_chainstate_2014-08-29.zip
or torrent file https://mega.co.nz/#!lIdCiCpb!RBnHZ8QvHCsjXp8KG2KT8tTc4StDSL_IZ2DZS2KonpU -> torrent

[Muhammed Zakir]

I wonder what will happen when the blockchain is terabytes long...

The Devs are trying to compressing it into <=20 GB . I think if they are doing it, they will have to remove many blocks. I think it will be done soon!

  ~~MZ~~

[BIT-Sharon]

Thank you for update. Many appreciation for the efforts.

[MadGamer]

I really don't know what to do . I like Bitcoin core .. but that blockchain size downloading takes for ever    so should I go with blockchain.info or take Multibit ? what's the safest ? thanks

[btchange]

is there a way to make bitcoin blocks minimum?

[tvbcof]

I really don't know what to do . I like Bitcoin core .. but that blockchain size downloading takes for ever    so should I go with blockchain.info or take Multibit ? what's the safest ? thanks

Both solutions leave your secret key under your control.  In theory.  I use blockchain.info because last I looked Multibit required a Java install which is not available for my secure platform and which I don't even feel comfortable installing on my non-secure Windows machine.  To much bloat, opacity, and weirdness with that framework for my tastes.  I'm not a frequent Bitcoin user and hope that if blockchain.info's JS infrastructure is compromised, someone would note it in code before I got screwed.  I don't think I've done a transaction since the selling opportunity early in the year, though, and have not kept up on things lately.

[Muhammed Zakir]

I really don't know what to do . I like Bitcoin core .. but that blockchain size downloading takes for ever     so should I go with blockchain.info or take Multibit ? what's the safest ? thanks

Both solutions leave your secret key under your control.  In theory.  I use blockchain.info because last I looked Multibit required a Java install which is not available for my secure platform and which I don't even feel comfortable installing on my non-secure Windows machine.  To much bloat, opacity, and weirdness with that framework for my tastes.  I'm not a frequent Bitcoin user and hope that if blockchain.info's JS infrastructure is compromised, someone would note it in code before I got screwed.  I don't think I've done a transaction since the selling opportunity early in the year, though, and have not kept up on things lately.

Yes. That's right! But is blockchain.info really secure? It is web wallet, so it might get hacked any time. IMO it is better to use Mutlibit HD which is a little better than Multibit. Remember, it is in Beta stage, so if you want a stable one, you can use Multibit. If you can't install Java, you can use Electrum.

is there a way to make bitcoin blocks minimum?

Now there is no option to make it. If you can't download whole blocks, then use other wallets like Multibit, Electrum or any web wallet(not recommended) such as Blockchain.info, Coinbase, Hive etc...

  ~~MZ~~

[tvbcof]

Yes. That's right! But is blockchain.info really secure? It is web wallet, so it might get hacked any time. IMO it is better to use Mutlibit HD which is a little better than Multibit. Remember, it is in Beta stage, so if you want a stable one, you can use Multibit. If you can't install Java, you can use Electrum.
...

If blockchain.info got hacked or shut down without warning one should still not lose their bitcoins as long as they've followed the fairly simple procedures to keep a hold of their private keys.  Nor can the attacker necessarily get the user's bitcoins because (in theory) blockchain.info themselves do NOT have the private key.

What an attacker, or a corrupt management, could do would be to start sending out a bogus javascript which would steal one's password and thus make it so that blockchain info could access the private keys.  As I said earlier, I would hope that this form of failure would effect relatively few people before it was detected.

The most legitimate problem with blockchain.info is, in my opinion, that the javascript interpreter which is normally part of the user's browser could be exploited.  Or other exploits of the host platform could present problems.  Naturally this could impact things besides web-wallets of course though.

It is worth note that historically most 'web wallets' did NOT follow the model pioneered by blockchain.info.  And of course as we know an amazing number of such 'services' ended up stealing the user's Bitcoins.  Surprise, surprise.  I would not consider a web wallet that did not meet or exceed blockchain.info's standards.

[ranochigo]

I really don't know what to do . I like Bitcoin core .. but that blockchain size downloading takes for ever     so should I go with blockchain.info or take Multibit ? what's the safest ? thanks

Both solutions leave your secret key under your control.  In theory.  I use blockchain.info because last I looked Multibit required a Java install which is not available for my secure platform and which I don't even feel comfortable installing on my non-secure Windows machine.  To much bloat, opacity, and weirdness with that framework for my tastes.  I'm not a frequent Bitcoin user and hope that if blockchain.info's JS infrastructure is compromised, someone would note it in code before I got screwed.  I don't think I've done a transaction since the selling opportunity early in the year, though, and have not kept up on things lately.

Yes. That's right! But is blockchain.info really secure? It is web wallet, so it might get hacked any time. IMO it is better to use Mutlibit HD which is a little better than Multibit. Remember, it is in Beta stage, so if you want a stable one, you can use Multibit. If you can't install Java, you can use Electrum.

is there a way to make bitcoin blocks minimum?

Now there is no option to make it. If you can't download whole blocks, then use other wallets like Multibit, Electrum or any web wallet(not recommended) such as Blockchain.info, Coinbase, Hive etc...

  ~~MZ~~

There is a huge difference between blockchain.info wallet and any other wallets. Some of the online wallet service are shared wallet which means you do not control the private key. You can request blockchain.info to send you a copy of your wallet and you could also export the private key. On blockchain.info, the person controlling the private key is only you, they have no access of the private key. You can enable two factor authentication for a better security however.

[BitcoinZombie]

Thanks for this Mike. Even though I have been using the BitCoin-QT client for a few months now, I was always wondering how long it would take to download and why all of the blocks were useful.

[mlferro]

thank you for informations.... very well explained

[Meuh6879]

How many can i write on this setting ?

-maxorphanblocks=<n>

Because, my new Bitcoin 0.9.3 is stuck on 751 orphan blocks ... (1 years and 10 week to wait ... since 24h ... and i have restart bitcoin core many time to avoid orphan download).

I understand, now, why people don't use the "nodes" feature of bitcoin core ... if orphan are not erased from bitcoin blockchain.

it's a new pollution for noobs ... ? Generate orphan block to kill nodes job ... ?

[Meuh6879]

OK Understand ... decrease MAXCONNEXION to 3 ... and blockchain flow correctly.
if you don't do this ... you always have ORPHAN block (more than 751 in memory) ... and synchro. don't work (i wait since 2 days with a freshly 0.9.3 installed).

please, correct this !  

[Meuh6879]

Need to restart 2 times (stuck with no downloads of blocks) ... need to decrease connexion to 2 (if you have more ORPHAN BLOCKS writed on debuglog file).



I use "bartail" to view a dynamic updated debuglog in real time.
http://geekswithblogs.net/robz/archive/2008/05/09/baretail---log-file-monitoring-tool.aspx

[bernard75]

Left it running overnight, still not finished.
I must add that this is a fresh install.

[Meuh6879]

Too angry for me ... i choose the torrent source file instead  

https://bitcoin.org/bin/blockchain/ (and click on the .TORRENT file = 21Gb)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=145386.0