downloading block chain an impediment to bitcoin adoption

[bg002h]

Hey...how about I pay you in BTC instead of cash...it's simple...just download some buggy software, fire it up, and wait several hours...then, you can confirm that I really sent you the BTC that I claimed...Oh, by the way, did I mention there will be ~1GB download?

This is better than cash?  Not for everything.  We need to trim the block chain to a still safe but manageable size, IMHO.  14 months ago, this issue was barely noticeable...now, it's a problem.

DrGoss
1DrGossc3QidjzgDXzveCAQGiPWsoiDZ8C

[1714910479]

1714910479

[skilo]

I think the makers of solidcoin are trying to address that issue.

[kjlimo]

Agreed, I recall waiting 3 or 4 hours to download the block chain...

And then I couldn't even figure out how to friggin solo mine, grrr...

I ended up joining a pool anyway, heh.

Not so sure if Mom & Pops are gonna wait for the block chain to catch up before they lose interest...

[mutley89]

You can Download the Block chain from here:

http://bitcoin.bluematt.me/bitcoin-nightly/blockchain-nightly/

This should be much quicker than waiting for the client to dowload them.

[TeaL]

I agree for interest sake, what happens when the block chain is 10GB? 100GB?

Perhaps there could be a % of the chain that is downloaded, checked via CHF on every client startup. Once the minimum % is downloaded the user could be given the option to download more & more of it.

[skilo]

just turn on your client everyday and let it run for a few minutes and that will keep the block chain up to date.

This will be easier than not using your client for days,weeks or months at a time then you turn it on and it has to download alot of block chain to get caught back up.

[phantomcircuit]

The main problem is that certain operations which do not actually require the full block chain are not disabled.

[Maged]

I highly suggest that you read this page:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability