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Topic: blockchain download at 56k speeds (Read 1062 times)

newbie
Activity: 28
Merit: 0
May 30, 2013, 05:54:55 PM
#21
True, Electrum is cool. Just don't forget your password or your money is gone.
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
May 30, 2013, 10:51:51 AM
#20
For those that find it very difficult to download the entire blockchain but still want a wallet:  consider Multibit, Electrum, or an online wallet at blockchain.info.  You do not need to download the blockchain for those wallets.
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
May 30, 2013, 10:48:52 AM
#19
sure
newbie
Activity: 28
Merit: 0
May 30, 2013, 10:28:10 AM
#18
56k... you can't forget that noise  Cry

That's funny because 56k modems do make noise.  Grin

I agree with Kluge. I'm not sure about the direct download thread mentioned for bitcoin. However, litecoin offers direct downloads and it does make getting the blockchain a breeze. I specifically agree with limiting bitcoin-qt speeds when in a residential setting. The bitcoin wallet will hog all upstream traffic even on a semi-decent cable connection. Another notable mention is Qos. Using quality of service, one can give personal computers priority over the connection or the other way around depending on what the end goal is.
sr. member
Activity: 476
Merit: 250
May 29, 2013, 03:44:47 PM
#17
56k... you can't forget that noise  Cry
donator
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1015
May 29, 2013, 04:25:30 AM
#16
If you're bandwidth limited, you could try bootstrap.dat: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ann-bitcoin-blockchain-data-torrent-145386

You'll still verify all the transactions that you downloaded, but now you'll be CPU bound instead of Network bound.
If you're looking to download faster with a slower Internet connection, go to linked thread, skip OP, and download directly from first reply. DSL and shittier will generally benefit very significantly from a direct download. As much as I hate the damned things, I found a download accelerator making multiple (Cool connections can get >150kb/s (~30kb/s with a single connection) whereas p2p downloads tends to DL around 40-100kb/s. (or, at peak times, ~2kb/s multi direct, ~.8kb/s single direct, ~.1-.3kb/s p2p)

For those clicking thread with slow or capped Internet connections who still want to use qt or Armory, I suggest downloading a traffic shaping tool for applications, like NetLimiter, to quickly and easily restrict TDP and/or UDP traffic. AFAIK, QT has no toggle switch (at least, not in the GUI) to shut off seeding or limit speeds, so to get around this, you can simply limit QT's upload traffic to something like .5kb/s. To keep general Internet usage reasonable, I limit qt's download speeds to 4kb/s. This is still enough to stay up-to-date for now, though you'll want to disable the UL speed restriction when sending a transaction. QT still sucks down ~150-175mb/day (450-700MB/day before throttling), leaving it unusable for those with relatively harsh bandwidth caps, but is much more tolerable for those like me with unlimited slowness, and can allow light Internet usage if you have a cap >15gb/mo... though, you're kind of screwed the first time you want to download the blockchain no matter what if you have a low-cap connection. I find the lack of reward to host a BTC node pretty interesting... I'll be interested to see something implemented in Future VirtualCurrency -- very difficult problem to solve, technically.

As others said, though - probably not an Internet bandwidth issue OP is noticing. One-day download is super-fast. (If you have a low number of peers on qt, may be firewall issue, though -- slow peers will cause slow download)
newbie
Activity: 57
Merit: 0
May 29, 2013, 03:49:00 AM
#15
same speed as me.
newbie
Activity: 28
Merit: 0
May 29, 2013, 01:31:26 AM
#14
The bitcoin-qt client does take a lot of storage and bandwidth to maintain 24/7. For the most part it makes a crap cable connection mostly useless. If you just need a wallet I suggest electrum. No blockchain monster needed.
legendary
Activity: 3528
Merit: 4945
May 28, 2013, 09:02:54 AM
#13
If I have bitcoin-qt running, does that mean there is a 7GB file somewhere on my computer that will keep growing and eating up space?

Yes.

I'm not lacking for disk space, but if this is the case I would like to know and move that file off of my primary HD.

I believe the blockchain is stored broken apart across multiple files.  The default location on your HD depends on your operating system:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory
sr. member
Activity: 298
Merit: 250
Play2Live pre-sale starts on January 25th
May 28, 2013, 02:29:18 AM
#12
So, the BTC blockchain is over 7GB right now, and growing by ~1GB a month (and accelerating).

If I have bitcoin-qt running, does that mean there is a 7GB file somewhere on my computer that will keep growing and eating up space?
I'm not lacking for disk space, but if this is the case I would like to know and move that file off of my primary HD.
newbie
Activity: 15
Merit: 0
May 28, 2013, 02:17:42 AM
#11
The blockchain download time still sucks. This will have to be improved in the future.
newbie
Activity: 28
Merit: 0
May 28, 2013, 01:45:01 AM
#10
My machine took about 2 days to get the blockchain and it has 8 cores at 2.6 GHZ. The first half was done within hours, the second half finished in about 30 hours. The crazy part is that the blockchain is growing by 1 GB a month right now.
member
Activity: 60
Merit: 10
May 23, 2013, 09:00:34 AM
#9
Mine has been running for about 32 hours and still going..
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
May 23, 2013, 08:30:49 AM
#8
Pretty sure that's the default download speed... we all have to deal with it  Undecided

Didn't realise is was capped! Makes a lot of sense though...
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
May 23, 2013, 08:16:54 AM
#7
Every single block and every single transaction in the blockchain has to be cryptographically verified by your computer as you download them. That's what's taking so long. A fast Internet connection won't help in the slightest.

So a fast computer will? Because I have a helluva fast computer and it was still slow. Maybe its time to upgrade my hardware AGAIN?
It should. With old (<0.8) versions of Bitcoin disk access speed was a major factor, but the latest version uses a more efficient database engine to minimise disk access, so now your CPU is the main bottleneck. Note that if anything else is using your CPU (especially if running bitcoind with increased niceness) that will slow things down significantly.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info!
legendary
Activity: 4551
Merit: 3445
Vile Vixen and Miss Bitcointalk 2021-2023
May 22, 2013, 11:42:56 PM
#6
Every single block and every single transaction in the blockchain has to be cryptographically verified by your computer as you download them. That's what's taking so long. A fast Internet connection won't help in the slightest.

So a fast computer will? Because I have a helluva fast computer and it was still slow. Maybe its time to upgrade my hardware AGAIN?
It should. With old (<0.8) versions of Bitcoin disk access speed was a major factor, but the latest version uses a more efficient database engine to minimise disk access, so now your CPU is the main bottleneck. Note that if anything else is using your CPU (especially if running bitcoind with increased niceness) that will slow things down significantly.
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
May 22, 2013, 08:19:26 AM
#5
Every single block and every single transaction in the blockchain has to be cryptographically verified by your computer as you download them. That's what's taking so long. A fast Internet connection won't help in the slightest.

So a fast computer will? Because I have a helluva fast computer and it was still slow. Maybe its time to upgrade my hardware AGAIN?
newbie
Activity: 10
Merit: 0
May 21, 2013, 11:02:49 PM
#4
If you're bandwidth limited, you could try bootstrap.dat: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ann-bitcoin-blockchain-data-torrent-145386

You'll still verify all the transactions that you downloaded, but now you'll be CPU bound instead of Network bound.
legendary
Activity: 4551
Merit: 3445
Vile Vixen and Miss Bitcointalk 2021-2023
May 21, 2013, 10:55:06 PM
#3
Every single block and every single transaction in the blockchain has to be cryptographically verified by your computer as you download them. That's what's taking so long. A fast Internet connection won't help in the slightest.
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
May 21, 2013, 11:34:52 AM
#2
Pretty sure that's the default download speed... we all have to deal with it  Undecided
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