How big is the blockchain right now?

gweedo

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Activity: 1498

Merit: 1000

Quote from: ScripterRon on December 15, 2013, 08:42:55 PM

Quote

Is downloading a torrent version of the blockchain a safe alternative? What assurances are there that the file you download this way is the real thing?

Downloading from a torrent is the best approach if you are able to do it. You don't need to worry about getting a bogus blockchain because the bitcoin client contains built-in checkpoints. So even if somebody gives you a blockchain which is internally consistent, the client will still reject it because it doesn't match its checkpoint values.

I run BitTorrent to seed the blockchain torrent and there is never any drop in the demand. I also run a full bitcoin node and that also runs at capacity feeding blocks to peer nodes. So there must be a lot of people installing Bitcoin-Qt for the first time Cheesy

You can run bitcoin-qt with the rescan (-rescan) option and check the blockchain. I do this at least once a month just to make sure my blockchain is good.

ScripterRon

full member

Activity: 136

Merit: 120

Quote

Is downloading a torrent version of the blockchain a safe alternative? What assurances are there that the file you download this way is the real thing?

Downloading from a torrent is the best approach if you are able to do it. You don't need to worry about getting a bogus blockchain because the bitcoin client contains built-in checkpoints. So even if somebody gives you a blockchain which is internally consistent, the client will still reject it because it doesn't match its checkpoint values.

I run BitTorrent to seed the blockchain torrent and there is never any drop in the demand. I also run a full bitcoin node and that also runs at capacity feeding blocks to peer nodes. So there must be a lot of people installing Bitcoin-Qt for the first time Cheesy

Flanagan

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Activity: 204

Merit: 100

Quote from: thorpie on December 14, 2013, 03:18:24 PM

Quickest way is to download as a torrent file - is about 9 gb or torrent and this includes the blockchain until about one month ago.
Move the downloaded torrent file - bootstrap.dat - to the bitcoin folder - C:\users\me\appdata\roaming\bitcoin on win8, then start the qt client and it automagically builds the database (takes about 2 hours) and then downloads the last months transactions.

Is downloading a torrent version of the blockchain a safe alternative? What assurances are there that the file you download this way is the real thing?

dimm

newbie

Activity: 16

Merit: 6

Quote from: gweedo on December 14, 2013, 04:18:49 PM

Mine is the 15.3GB and that is just the amount in my block's folder, which is where the blockchain is housed. The real answer is cause different file system uses different ways of measuring a gb. I am on Mac so I can measure base 10 or base 2. Mine was measured in base 10 making 1000MB == 1gb, in base 2 mine is 14.3GB. Sorry for the confusion.

Also some people maybe a couple blocks ahead or not depending on who they are connected too as well.

Thanks.
didn't thought of it
thus we have to compare the amount in bytes

could it also depends on the the size of a disk's cluster and files fragmentation level?

gweedo

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Activity: 1498

Merit: 1000

Quote from: dimm on December 14, 2013, 01:57:42 PM

Quote from: Btuyuea on December 14, 2013, 01:45:33 PM

Just curious, why do everyone report a different size?
I can see 14.2, 14.4 and even 15.3 GB, and there is something like 10% difference. Why and how?

depending on the time of install and use it can contain different logs, peers, debug data, etc.
wallet size are different too

Mine is the 15.3GB and that is just the amount in my block's folder, which is where the blockchain is housed. The real answer is cause different file system uses different ways of measuring a gb. I am on Mac so I can measure base 10 or base 2. Mine was measured in base 10 making 1000MB == 1gb, in base 2 mine is 14.3GB. Sorry for the confusion.

Also some people maybe a couple blocks ahead or not depending on who they are connected too as well.

thorpie

newbie

Activity: 1

Merit: 0

Quickest way is to download as a torrent file - is about 9 gb or torrent and this includes the blockchain until about one month ago.
Move the downloaded torrent file - bootstrap.dat - to the bitcoin folder - C:\users\me\appdata\roaming\bitcoin on win8, then start the qt client and it automagically builds the database (takes about 2 hours) and then downloads the last months transactions.

tropicalmonsoon

newbie

Activity: 53

Merit: 0

Quote from: Yeot36 on December 14, 2013, 02:03:31 PM

Quote from: dimm on December 14, 2013, 01:57:42 PM

Quote from: Btuyuea on December 14, 2013, 01:45:33 PM

Just curious, why do everyone report a different size?
I can see 14.2, 14.4 and even 15.3 GB, and there is something like 10% difference. Why and how?

depending on the time of install and use it can contain different logs, peers, debug data, etc.
wallet size are different too

Currently my wallet is just a few MB, and so as the debut log and peers.dat

I don't think these files will grow to something like a GB, or will them? Shocked

Do you have Bitcoin-QT installed as your wallet?

Yeot36

newbie

Activity: 5

Merit: 0

Quote from: dimm on December 14, 2013, 01:57:42 PM

Quote from: Btuyuea on December 14, 2013, 01:45:33 PM

Just curious, why do everyone report a different size?
I can see 14.2, 14.4 and even 15.3 GB, and there is something like 10% difference. Why and how?

depending on the time of install and use it can contain different logs, peers, debug data, etc.
wallet size are different too

Currently my wallet is just a few MB, and so as the debut log and peers.dat

I don't think these files will grow to something like a GB, or will them? Shocked

dimm

newbie

Activity: 16

Merit: 6

Quote from: Btuyuea on December 14, 2013, 01:45:33 PM

Just curious, why do everyone report a different size?
I can see 14.2, 14.4 and even 15.3 GB, and there is something like 10% difference. Why and how?

depending on the time of install and use it can contain different logs, peers, debug data, etc.
wallet size are different too

Btuyuea

newbie

Activity: 5

Merit: 0

Just curious, why do everyone report a different size?
I can see 14.2, 14.4 and even 15.3 GB, and there is something like 10% difference. Why and how?

mad4coinz

newbie

Activity: 7

Merit: 0

I gave up downloading the bootstrap from source forge, letting the client do it now, might be done by the end of the weekend *sigh*
Then I'll have somewhere fee free offline to store my coins...

Flanagan

full member

Activity: 204

Merit: 100

Quote from: tropicalmonsoon on December 13, 2013, 02:27:04 PM

Quote from: Flanagan on December 13, 2013, 06:30:26 AM

Just finished downloading today, took about 48 hours.

Where in the PC is the blockchain stored so I can see how big it is?

I'm on OSX and it's in Library>Application Support>Bitcoin - I'm not sure where you'd find it on Windows, but I assume it would be similar?

Thanks. I've looked around my win 7 installation and found it in AppData -> Roaming -> Bitcoin
The current size of the bitcoin folder is 14.5 GB

tropicalmonsoon

newbie

Activity: 53

Merit: 0

Quote from: Kluge on December 13, 2013, 02:59:19 PM

Quote from: tropicalmonsoon on December 13, 2013, 04:43:04 AM

Quote from: bryant.coleman on December 13, 2013, 04:20:21 AM

According to the Blockchain.info, the size is 12,107 MB right now. But it can take more space in your system.

That's fine, I was just a bit worried it would be like 50GB and I'd hit my data cap.

You should be careful about running a full node on the PC once the blockchain's sync'd. Especially if you have high bandwidth, you'll very quickly run into your limit through sharing blocks and relaying transactions.

Well while I've got a data cap at the moment, I'll be moving to Australia in the next 2-3 months where I'll get an unlimited connection - so it should only be a temporary problem. In the meantime though, is there any way I can stop my full node from operating if it ends up using too much data? I assume closing the wallet client won't do anything...

Kluge

donator

Activity: 1218

Merit: 1015

Quote from: mad4coinz on December 13, 2013, 03:10:16 PM

Quote from: Kluge on December 13, 2013, 02:59:19 PM

Quote from: tropicalmonsoon on December 13, 2013, 04:43:04 AM

Quote from: bryant.coleman on December 13, 2013, 04:20:21 AM

According to the Blockchain.info, the size is 12,107 MB right now. But it can take more space in your system.

That's fine, I was just a bit worried it would be like 50GB and I'd hit my data cap.

You should be careful about running a full node on the PC once the blockchain's sync'd. Especially if you have high bandwidth, you'll very quickly run into your limit through sharing blocks and relaying transactions.

So, what do we do to avoid running as full node? I'm downloading the bootstrap file separately from source forge, and it's 9.9 gb zipped, should be done by the morning and then there will be some catching up for it to do but at least it will save my hard drive.

PS
Download Link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoinblockchain/files/29-10-2013/ Download Size: 9GB (Compressed) - 13GB (Decompressed)
Re-directs to the most recent version.

You can even get a torrent for it.

Netlimiter will work well for it. Some other solutions may also work. Once sync'd, QT can still be functional with a limit of ~3kb/s https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/selfish-node-min-bandwdith-needed-for-bitcoin-core-tons-of-other-data-334778

mad4coinz

newbie

Activity: 7

Merit: 0

Quote from: Kluge on December 13, 2013, 02:59:19 PM

Quote from: tropicalmonsoon on December 13, 2013, 04:43:04 AM

Quote from: bryant.coleman on December 13, 2013, 04:20:21 AM

According to the Blockchain.info, the size is 12,107 MB right now. But it can take more space in your system.

That's fine, I was just a bit worried it would be like 50GB and I'd hit my data cap.

You should be careful about running a full node on the PC once the blockchain's sync'd. Especially if you have high bandwidth, you'll very quickly run into your limit through sharing blocks and relaying transactions.

So, what do we do to avoid running as full node? I'm downloading the bootstrap file separately from source forge, and it's 9.9 gb zipped, should be done by the morning and then there will be some catching up for it to do but at least it will save my hard drive.

PS
Download Link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoinblockchain/files/29-10-2013/ Download Size: 9GB (Compressed) - 13GB (Decompressed)
Re-directs to the most recent version.

You can even get a torrent for it.

Kluge

donator

Activity: 1218

Merit: 1015

Quote from: tropicalmonsoon on December 13, 2013, 04:43:04 AM

Quote from: bryant.coleman on December 13, 2013, 04:20:21 AM

According to the Blockchain.info, the size is 12,107 MB right now. But it can take more space in your system.

That's fine, I was just a bit worried it would be like 50GB and I'd hit my data cap.

You should be careful about running a full node on the PC once the blockchain's sync'd. Especially if you have high bandwidth, you'll very quickly run into your limit through sharing blocks and relaying transactions.

quone17

full member

Activity: 224

Merit: 104

I have wondered this too and haven't even taken the time to look and see how large it is. Yeah, they have to do something about this at some point. I mean you can't have like 100 gigs required to buy/sell BTC, the hardware will become too onerous if they want to get everyone using it. Why can't they just eliminate some of the "older" transactions? Or, how about making it optional whether to download entire blockchain or only a part of it?

exstasie

legendary

Activity: 1806

Merit: 1521

Quote from: soloburrito on December 13, 2013, 02:53:16 PM

So what solutions are available to not have a massive blockchain on one's pc? Are you stuck with it unless you want to chance a hosted wallet?

If you want to keep your BTC safe, you could do a paper wallet from a hosted environment. But i guess that technically wouldn't be the safest as you do need the internet to generate the paper wallet which has the public/private key available.

soloburrito

newbie

Activity: 13

Merit: 0

So what solutions are available to not have a massive blockchain on one's pc? Are you stuck with it unless you want to chance a hosted wallet?

Harley997

sr. member

Activity: 266

Merit: 250

bloating bigger than ever before. it just grows and grows and grows! yeah, it may become a problem....

Topic: How big is the blockchain right now? (Read 1458 times)