Fix the blockchain!

[ineededausername]

Hi everyone,
I think the following things need to be pointed out about the blockchain.

1. It's stupidly huge and something needs to be done about that.
2. If you expect btc to be a real-world currency then it's going to get even more stupidly huge with more use.
3. It takes forever to download it, which puts off new users.
4. It's a Berkeley DB... ugh.

If I'm wrong, please correct me... but I think the blockchain needs to be changed so that it's more user-friendly, dev-friendly and efficient.

edit: I posted this in the Bitcoin Discussion forum because I wanted to discuss the effect of the huge blockchain on new users' adoption of bitcoin.

[Gabi]

If I'm wrong, please correct me

Indeed you are

I wanted to discuss the effect of the huge blockchain on new users' adoption of bitcoin.

Already discussed tons of times...

[ttk2]

Hi everyone,
I think the following things need to be pointed out about the blockchain.

1. It's stupidly huge and something needs to be done about that.
2. If you expect btc to be a real-world currency then it's going to get even more stupidly huge with more use.
3. It takes forever to download it, which puts off new users.
4. It's a Berkeley DB... ugh.

If I'm wrong, please correct me... but I think the blockchain needs to be changed so that it's more user-friendly, dev-friendly and efficient.

edit: I posted this in the Bitcoin Discussion forum because I wanted to discuss the effect of the huge blockchain on new users' adoption of bitcoin.

You make more than 500 posts and you dont know about block chain trimming? really?

[kokjo]

4. It's a Berkeley DB... ugh.

what is wrong with that? seriously! you do have a really low understanding of DB's right?

[Portnoy]

3. It takes forever to download it, which puts off new users.

The first monthly "State of Bitcoin" summary coming from project developer Gavin Andresen ( 13 Oct 15:32 )
http://bit.ly/plkp7D

excerpt:
• Network stability and wallet security are still my top concerns; start-up experience for new users
  (the long wait to download the block chain) is next on my list.

[doobadoo]

1. It's stupidly huge and something needs to be done about that.
2. If you expect btc to be a real-world currency then it's going to get even more stupidly huge with more use.
3. It takes forever to download it, which puts off new users.
4. It's a Berkeley DB... ugh.

If I'm wrong, please correct me... but I think the blockchain needs to be changed so that it's more user-friendly, dev-friendly and efficient.

edit: I posted this in the Bitcoin Discussion forum because I wanted to discuss the effect of the huge blockchain on new users' adoption of bitcoin.

RE #1:  I wouldn't call it stupidly huge, it can still fit on one cd rom..and those haven't been "big" for about 15 years.

RE #2:  Yes it will, i completely agree

RE #3:  I do not know for the life of me, why 95% of the block chain isn't downloaded along with the app..that is the first 140K or so blocks really should come with the initial download.  Its much smaller than 600 mb when you zip it.  Then updating the rest by the client should only take an hour or two.

RE #4:  Good luck trying to change that

[eldentyrell]

RE #3:  I do not know for the life of me, why 95% of the block chain isn't downloaded along with the app..that is the first 140K or so blocks really should come with the initial download.  Its much smaller than 600 mb when you zip it.  Then updating the rest by the client should only take an hour or two.

Doesn't this just shift the burden of serving those blocks from the network as a whole to the site hosting bitcoin.org?  Sounds like that would be a bad thing; I'm sure their bandwidth bills are a burden already.

If the bitcoin wire protocol doesn't have an option for compression, I'm sure it would be easy to add it.  Then there would be no net bandwidth difference between bundling the blockchain with the client and letting it download on startup.

With all of that in mind, the client sure does need a simple "please wait while the blockchain downloads, X% finished" since it's reasonable to assume that this is the user's first encounter with the bitcoin client and they aren't likely to know what's going on.

[doobadoo]

RE #3:  I do not know for the life of me, why 95% of the block chain isn't downloaded along with the app..that is the first 140K or so blocks really should come with the initial download.  Its much smaller than 600 mb when you zip it.  Then updating the rest by the client should only take an hour or two.

Doesn't this just shift the burden of serving those blocks from the network as a whole to the site hosting bitcoin.org?  Sounds like that would be a bad thing; I'm sure their bandwidth bills are a burden already.

how many thousands of people are dling bitcoin client every day?  I think the hosting bandwidth is trival

[gmaxwell]

4. It's a Berkeley DB... ugh.

what is wrong with that? seriously! you do have a really low understanding of DB's right?

The funnier part is that the _block chain_ is not stored using BDB.... the blocks are stored in a simple flat file with the blocks appended one after another.

[Stephen Gornick]

Related post here:
 - http://bitcoin-trader.blogspot.com/2011/10/that-god-damned-blockchain.html

[ElectricMucus]

Not an argument, yes at some points quantum effects may employ a barrier but that's when we we even argue about trimming the blockchain, so until then can this topic rest plz?