Bitcoin Core blockchain impossible to download now, too slow and too big

[franky1]

I find the Bitcoin Core blockchain impossible to download now,

You may want to consider a lightweight wallet if your computer specs are not modern enough to handle it.

the main gripe is that people cant really spend their funds until the chain is uptodate. which can be days-weeks to set it up

if only there was a smart dev that could think of some simple solution..
like

an uptodate UTXO set of (lets say current blockheight minus 1) gets its own hash. and that hash is set in the current block data.
making the UTXO set of 1confirms+ verifiable as part of block checks

thus people can then have their wallet grab a very recent UTXO set FIRST. so they can actually go ahead and spend their funds, the same day.
after all sending out a tx using the UTXO set wont hurt the network. if it contains a input that is actually spend or non existent it wont get relayed/accepted into a new block anyway..

...
this way it is also good for light wallet users that just want the UTXO set have some faith that the UTXO set has some checks and validations by the network.

and then it makes downloading the blockchain if they want to part of the networks full validation/data archiving, more of a background feature..
thus then alleviates the requirement for some people to not have to wait 2 weeks or so to download the blockchain before they are upto date enough just to spend funds.

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[v1.0]

It's done, it is not impossible. You all were right. And I've been won over. So now I shall view the title to the thread as merely now an exasperation of sorts, more of "because it took so long, it seemed impossible". Man, does that feel great though, after such a long time blocks are up to date and finally syncs.

So now what. Well, I exited it the program and disconnected the drive. Replugged, started up the core again, and it was up and synced fairly quick. So, that was about a week ago. I've since unplugged the drive again and its been sitting cold for a week. I want to see how long it takes to resync after a couple weeks. I think its going to annoy me enough to the point of upgrading some hardware..it always spirals into ridiculousness though. For example, if I want more ram, I'll have to upgrade my MB to support it. MY new MB might not be compatible with my current cpu. So then I'll have to change that. etc But what I'm really looking forward to is putting Core on an SSD as many on here have suggested.

DannyHamilton thank you for the video suggestion, I am going to look at it. This is going to be a slow and steady race for me, but eventually I hope to at least grasp enough of the basics to have a proper dialogue about it. The rest of your response I'm going to have to sort through at least 5 or 6 times, there is such great detail in there.

So a newer Bitcoin Core version can process SegWit transactions? I will have to check my version. That is interesting to know about how an older version handles (or doesn't, to be correct) a transaction from a SegWit wallet.

Also, invalid transactions seem important to understand. I want to know what kind of reprocussions it causes in the ecosystem, if any, or do they just eventually filter into non-existance?

Thanks again for all the responses/help.

[DannyHamilton]

Also, invalid transactions seem important to understand. I want to know what kind of reprocussions it causes in the ecosystem, if any, or do they just eventually filter into non-existance?

They almost immediately filter into non-existence.

Every node on the network verifies every transaction it receives before it adds the transaction to it's own mempool, or relays the transaction to any other connected peers.

Therefore, if anyone tries to connect to any nodes and broadcast an invalid transaction, every one of those connected peers will reject the invalid transaction.  It won't be accepted into their own mempools, AND it won't be relayed to ANY other nodes.

Furthermore, if a node is found to be repeatedly sending invalid data, then the nodes that it is connected to will close that connection so that they don't need to repeatedly check invalid data.

[v1.0]

the main gripe is that people cant really spend their funds until the chain is uptodate. which can be days-weeks to set it up

if only there was a smart dev that could think of some simple solution..
like

an uptodate UTXO set of (lets say current blockheight minus 1) gets its own hash. and that hash is set in the current block data.
making the UTXO set of 1confirms+ verifiable as part of block checks

thus people can then have their wallet grab a very recent UTXO set FIRST. so they can actually go ahead and spend their funds, the same day.
after all sending out a tx using the UTXO set wont hurt the network. if it contains a input that is actually spend or non existent it wont get relayed/accepted into a new block anyway..

What is holding back implementing this kind of idea? There must be trade-offs of some sort, otherwise it would have been done by now?

[v1.0]

Also, invalid transactions seem important to understand. I want to know what kind of reprocussions it causes in the ecosystem, if any, or do they just eventually filter into non-existance?

They almost immediately filter into non-existence.

Every node on the network verifies every transaction it receives before it adds the transaction to it's own mempool, or relays the transaction to any other connected peers.

Therefore, if anyone tries to connect to any nodes and broadcast an invalid transaction, every one of those connected peers will reject the invalid transaction.  It won't be accepted into their own mempools, AND it won't be relayed to ANY other nodes.

Furthermore, if a node is found to be repeatedly sending invalid data, then the nodes that it is connected to will close that connection so that they don't need to repeatedly check invalid data.

Excellent- thanks!

Taking this a bit further to rejected transactions...on another altcoin I was mining (not bitcoin, as individual users no longer can mine), apparently I mined my first block ever ( super excited) and got paid, it showed the number of coins I had in my wallet. But then apparently the crypto "forked". I had to upgrade my software to continue mining. However, after the upgrade, my payment for my newly mined block disappeared! I inquired to the sysop about it, he responded that likely my new mined block was mined during a "fork", thereby rejected by all the nodes I was attempting to connect to.

If this is inappropriate to ask about in a bitcoin thread, by all means just tell me I wont bring it up again. But I'm thinking perhaps the same thing could have occurred in the past with Bitcoin itself during a fork? Mined blocks would not be valid?

***

So, after a couple weeks of testing, ie. having my wallet and the entire chain offline on a removable drive, than plugging in and starting the resync all over again, happy to report ( I know I know I'm preaching to the choir) that everything works perfectly! Both times Bitcoin Core has synced back up to the network and brought the chain up to date even after being offline for a week. So---I can happily say that: It is NOT impossible to download now, but still is definitely too slow and too big!

[Marileno]

Why is this a problem? I must be missing something.

[joinbroo]

Hi, I'm tired of waiting for a long sync and stumbled upon the blocks with a torrent and there are still coins torrented
https://krypto-wallet.org/en/coin/download-blockchain-bitcoin-torrent-file.html

[v1.0]

 "New info escalates importance: upgrading to 0.16.3 is REQUIRED"

Does the entire blockchain have to be downloaded again now??

[v1.0]

"New info escalates importance: upgrading to 0.16.3 is REQUIRED"

Does the entire blockchain have to be downloaded again now??

Learning as I go folks! So no, as I found out, an upgrade does not require the blockchain to be downloaded again. Once downloaded and unpacked, the upgrade is really just the bitcoin-qt file plus a couple more files. Basically copied them into my bitcoin folder and viola! everything runs just fine.

Thanks,

v1.0

p.s. new core version released today:  v0.17.0