Theoretical limit of blockchain size

[takuma sato]

As we know, block files are saved in smaller files that contain a number of blocks within these blk00000.dat files, the question is, is there a theoretical maximun amount that could be achieved where it stops working? even if it's in practice meaningless such as collision of private keys (2^256 possible so chances are it's insanely unlikely you spawn the same one) so basically, it exists in theory, but not in practice, my question is, can this program just validate an infinite amount of blk files, or there would be a theoretical limit? Assuming hard drive space keeps up with the growth of the blockchain that is. Then as the blockchain grows, the size of hard drives would grow faster, so you could just keep storing these files. My question is more on the software side of things, if it would have problems with so many files, or perhaps even at the hardware level, but we already deal with insane amount of files. An interesting thing to consider would be, maximun amount of files a folder can deal with within the OS. For Windows 10 it's 4,294,967,295 which was surprising, im not sure how many your average Linux distro could deal with, even tho I think there are tricks to split the blockchain in different folders that link with each other I think, or all files must be store within the same folder?
Let's just try to consider all angles and think far into the future and try to detect any walls that could be hit along the way and how to fix them before it even happens.

[Stalker22]

We really dont need to worry about this.  The way blockchain is designed, it can deal with a crapload of data.  Sure, it can be interesting to theorize about possible limits, but lets be real – we are generations off from hitting any sort of storage or software limitations.  By the time we even approach such a scenario, technology will have advanced far beyond our current capabilities.

[ranochigo]

That is a problem independent of Bitcoin and it would depend on the filesystem as well as the OS and that is out of our control. For most intent and purposes, we will not run in the problem of individual file size since the blocks are being split into multiple files already. If the problem is with the size of the volume, then I believe that most of the filesystems that we're using already have theocratical compatibility in the order of exabytes. The most naive solution that I can think of is just to symlink the relevant block files into different volumes.

If the individual hard drives were to get bigger, I doubt that OSes wouldn't be supporting different filesystems with larger volume capacities.

[garlonicon]

is there a theoretical maximun amount that could be achieved where it stops working?

Yes. Each and every SHA-256 call will limit the hashed message into 2^64-1 bits at most.

[DaveF]

.... An interesting thing to consider would be, maximun amount of files a folder can deal with within the OS. For Windows 10 it's 4,294,967,295...

Years ago (DOS / 3.1) that number was smaller it grew with Win 98 and then again in XP and then again. So it's meaningless to worry about. By the time BTC hits that number the OSs we will be running are going to be able to handle much larger amounts of files and file sizes.

Kind of like storage. 4 TB SSDs used to be over $1000 now you can get cheap name brands for under $200 and even the 8TB are under $800

It's not even a concern unless you are going to want to run a copy of bitcoin core that will be released in 2095 on an OS from 2001.

-Dave

[satscraper]

I think the theoretical limits for blockchain size do  exists and it is defined by the Bekenstein bound   of Sgr A* (which is black hole in the centre of our galaxy). The  bigger size would be not accommodated by any imaginable device invented (at any time, in the past, present or future) by any civilization   presumably existing in Milky Way.

[DaveF]

Just as an FYI
https://x.com/davepl1968/status/1772042158046146792

And

https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/16/24221635/microsoft-fat32-partition-size-limit-windows-11

So even old things might be able to store even more if MSFT makes any other changes as time goes on.

Probably will not matter for BTC since nobody should be using outdated file systems to host their node but still an interesting tidbit.

-Dave

[MeGold666]

Probably will not matter for BTC since nobody should be using outdated file systems to host their node but still an interesting tidbit.

Imagine if file system updates were seen as being bad the same way as Bitcoiners see protocol updates being bad.
We would still be limited to 4GB max file size with FAT32.

Nobody should be using outdated cryptocurrency or for that matter, anything that's outdated.