Bitcoin's block chain size is currently around 300GB and increasing. How much of an issue is this in the future? If internet speeds and storage capacity increases at the same pace as Bitcoin's blockchain size, then this is probably not a big deal but what if the increase in the blockchain size outpaces it? What are the implications? Would less people be able to run nodes/mining and therefore threaten decentralisation? Are there any other threats that need to be considered?
This silliness keeps coming out now and then. If you are genuinely interested, why didn't you search a little on the forum?
As calculated here, it takes at least 5 years for each 1 TB in the blockchain. And 1 TB of HDD is cheap and gets cheaper by every year passing.
Then, you should know that a node needs to download big amount of data only at the first sync, until it's catching up. Afterward the stress on the internet connection is not that big. And internet, again, is evolving to larger bandwidth and cheaper.
So... do you see any real problem? Cause I don't.
The counter-argument to that is, not everyone has the same access to large bandwidth, or would care to upgrade their internet connection, or their hardware, just to run a node.
Bitcoin's block chain size is currently around 300GB and increasing. How much of an issue is this in the future?
If internet speeds and storage capacity increases at the same pace as Bitcoin's blockchain size, then this is probably not a big deal but what if the increase in the blockchain size outpaces it? What are the implications?
Would less people be able to run nodes/mining and therefore threaten decentralisation? Are there any other threats that need to be considered?
It's always better to overshoot the decentralization/security of the network, than undershoot. The Bitcoin blockchain should also be made as redundant as possible for new nodes.
