Hi there,
Does anyone here have a full node that has been running for a couple of years or more?
The reason I ask is because I've only been running a node for about 6 months. This means that when I started running my node, I downloaded the blockchain, but not any of the branches that had taken place. This is because new nodes don't get blocks from branches when they start downloading the blockchain from another peer. However, once you're running a full node, your node will receive blocks from other peers, and some of these will turn in to branches (but you still keep those blocks in your blk.dat files).
Therefore, my node's blockchain only contains a limited number of branches, all of which are only 1 block in length. I would like to get a hold of a blockchain with more branches so that I can code my blockchain explorer in a way that will display branches that are longer than 1 block (e.g.
http://learnmeabitcoin.com/explorer/blockchain/422574).
So basically, I'd like to be able to get a copy of a blockchain from a node that has been running a lot longer than mine. Anyone know where (and how) I could get one?