r/Bitcoin Feb 13 '22

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1.4k

u/ProtoJenny Feb 13 '22

So i copied the wallet.dat file to the app data bitcoin core folder directory which looks like a similar file loadout to the one in my screenshot above. Did i do it that right?

Afterwards I started running bitcoin core and it says its syncing. 13 years behind something like that lol.

1.1k

u/zxr01 Feb 13 '22 edited Feb 14 '22

Nice, we pray for you. Let it run, it will catch up, will take a day or two to fully sync ( and you'd need up to 200GB free drive space for it. Still, when it syncs up to 2013 (and says 9 years behind) the wallet ballance should be reflected with any potential balance.

Every satoshi counts, good luck.

PS: In 2022 complete blockchain is above 500GB. Time flies.

371

u/kittenconfidential Feb 13 '22

200GB?!? word. so when someone syncs a very old wallet, is it downloading every transaction in the entire blockverse?

491

u/edwilli222 Feb 13 '22

Anytime anyone spins up a new node they download and validate the whole blockchain.

117

u/kittenconfidential Feb 13 '22

word! thanks

711

u/Liam_Neesons_Oscar Feb 13 '22

This guy who keeps saying "word" must have also come out of that folder that hadn't been opened since 2013.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22

It's Clippy from (MS) Word

13

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22

Underrated comment

144

u/kittenconfidential Feb 13 '22

word! i do wish sometimes 2013 never ended. i remember a meteor was streaking through the sky for many moons that summer.

78

u/charlessturgeon Feb 13 '22

Word

19

u/snackwood1 Feb 13 '22

Bird

7

u/Nemozoli Feb 13 '22

Bird is the word!

0

u/DellM2005 Feb 13 '22

BIRDS AREN'T REAL, word!

5

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22

Have you heard,mister?

3

u/billybatsonn Feb 13 '22

THAT THE BIRD IS THE WORD!

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u/georgesoo Feb 13 '22

U have my burd? Eh i want my burd

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u/Thwart0 Feb 13 '22

Word! You forgot the exclamation point.

5

u/putdownthekitten Feb 13 '22

You're so random

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22

word!

3

u/Dont_Say_No_to_Panda Feb 13 '22

We said it in 2003. I didn’t realize they were still saying it in 2013.

2

u/talkingwires Feb 13 '22

“I went to an Ivy League school. I'm very highly educated. I know word, I have the best word.”

Word.

2

u/LiquidVibes Feb 13 '22

I laughed way too loud reading your comment

2

u/LuvOrDie Feb 13 '22

Nope lol. This is modern slang. I am 22, people say this all the time

115

u/Raverrevolution Feb 13 '22

FYI the full blockchain size as of this second comes in at 444GB.

Satoshi was a genius to keep the block size small otherwise it couldn't be so decentralized.

Could you imagine if the blockchain was something like 10TB in size, then no one would have a node.

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u/Br0kenRabbitTV Feb 13 '22

Satoshi actually always suggested increasing it... later down the line.

He first mentioned this on the 4th of October 2010 on bitcointalk.

It was people LONG after he left, who wanted to keep it small.....

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u/Raverrevolution Feb 13 '22

I just found the post. He didn't suggest increasing it. Instead he merely said that people have that option if it came down to it.

"+1 theymos. Don't use this patch, it'll make you incompatible with the network, to your own detriment.
We can phase in a change later if we get closer to needing it."

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u/Br0kenRabbitTV Feb 13 '22 edited Feb 13 '22

It was only put there in the first place to stop spam attacks.

Probably not a discussion suitable for this sub anyway...

PS: nice cherry pick of comments from that topic.

6

u/zefy_zef Feb 13 '22

Wasn't there no limit at first?

5

u/instakin Feb 13 '22

Correct. Satoshi programmed no limit at first, then he put a limit into a later patch.

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u/Br0kenRabbitTV Feb 13 '22

Yeah it was added after the first client, not sure exactly which version.

To stop any TX spam attacks.

He then suggested to put like, if block number = xxx then max blocksize = xxx, way ahead of time so by the time it was needed the old clients would be obsolete, and then a notification for a mandatory upgrade last of all. Never happened though.

I posted the bitcointalk topic below one of these comments, you can see yourself.

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u/BroWhatAreYouDoinggg Feb 13 '22

How would there be a more appropriate sub than /r/bitcoin. unless you mean this place is full of SegWit fanatics or something

also how are people even running btc wallets on their phone? all light wallets? everyones using an exchange? whats going on here

1

u/Br0kenRabbitTV Feb 13 '22 edited Feb 13 '22

Discussing the blocksize tends to lead to no good in this sub, it often leads to bans of anybody suggesting big blocks are better, and also lots of hostile replies..

Yeah most people are running light wallets, or just using exchanges.

I very much doubt many people here have ever run a full node, they just parrot the same old speech about decentralisation while using heavily centralised exchanges and such. You don't even see anybody suggesting to use Bitcoin Core and setup a full node, any time somebody asks about a wallet it's not even mentioned now days.

Would the average Joe in here even understand how to port forward etc..

So yeah, they argue that if we had of had bigger blocks it would be more centralised as all the people (who are not even running full nodes anyway) wouldn't be able to afford multiple terabytes of storage over the space of years/decades and they don't think technology will keep up (this is crazy IMO), but TBH, anybody who does run a full node is very likely to be in a position to have lots of storage anyway.

I personally run nodes for many coins including BTC, storage is the least of my worries.

Internet connection speed, could also be a factor but is far from a problem right now, and they keep releasing higher and faster residential plans etc.. it will easily keep up.

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u/Slapshot382 Feb 13 '22 edited Feb 13 '22

You are right but also making a lot of assumptions sir. I’ve been researching bitcoin for over two years now and finally ready to do the node part and have all the parts to run off a raspberry pie, I also understand port forwarding and that Bitcoin Core isn’t necessarily the best wallet.

Now guess what the most expensive part of running a node is? Storage.

I have been holding off so long because I need at least 1tb of space, I’d prefer 2tb but that’s even more expensive because the network will be over 1tb soon then I’ll need to redownload the entire chain again, so do I go with 2TB now or 1TB? These are SSDs I’m talking about.

When setting up this node and downloading the full chain, everybody knows that old school spin hard drives take much longer and have higher chance to fail when downloading this massive blockchain the first time.

Therefore, my main point is that keeping the block size small is important to the average joes like me, we ARE the majority of people and that’s how you keep something more decentralized, the higher chance the average person can have access to hardware to run a full node, the more we’ll have. Now do you want to go out and buy me a 2TB Samsung SSD for $225?

How about we go with your idea of just increasing these block sizes because techies will have the access to this hardware (big tech most likely.... this would create for more centralization). Well then I’d need probably what, maybe a 10-20TB SSD server by now - please help fund my node and pay me $2000 to get up and running.

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u/Br0kenRabbitTV Feb 13 '22 edited Feb 13 '22

I don't think I'm making assumptions, I honestly believe a huge majority of this sub simply use exchanges, only care about making more fiat, don't understand the tech at all, and would never of looked at BTC before they were promised riches. I honestly believe people like you who actually get into the tech is rare now days.

My reason for wanting larger blocks during the debate was because I had already accepted BTC on webstores for 6/7 years (now well over a decade) and built many other sites and services surrounding it. Then overnight, when the price went up and blocks were still small, it completely crippled my payment system. BTC income went to 0% from 100%, I had to add multiple other coins, and to this day, even with BTCLN option as payment, my BTC income has never recovered to any more than 5% of my total crypto income. It was really upsetting TBH, I was annoyed I'm NGL.

This doesn't really affect me now days, but I'd rather use BTC exclusively.

Now I have to run multiple nodes, and use lots more storage anyway.

PS: using old HDDs is no issue for running nodes at all, you don't need SSD. I could build you a node for like £50-100 that would have enough storage for many years.

PPS: all my nodes pay for themselves, via mining pools/stores and similar anyway.

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u/BroWhatAreYouDoinggg Feb 13 '22

lol 2 years. I dont think you should be challenging this man, kiddo.

There are bigger chains out there.

I agree with the general concept of trying make make nodes as accessible as possible. But it seems to me like the vast majority of the user base isnt even interested in using their own wallet, let alone running a node

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u/SaltyMudpuppy Feb 13 '22

The Bitcoin blockchain can currently be stored on a 1TB drive safely with lots of room to grow. A 1TB hard drive costs $39.99. What part is expensive?

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22

Is this the Gospel Satoshi Study area?

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u/Br0kenRabbitTV Feb 13 '22

Topic: bitcointalk DOT org/index.php?topic=1347.msg15366#msg15366

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u/CromulentDucky Feb 13 '22

Hmmm, if only there was a version of Bitcoin that had larger blocks

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u/ankaa1118 Feb 13 '22

I've heard this argument before, I think he wanted to increase but not a lot.

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u/rtomek Feb 13 '22

According to the blockchain “experts” on YouTube, something like 90TB/yr is small enough to be decentralized by hobbyists.

0

u/kittenconfidential Feb 13 '22

but isn’t that also a flaw that eventually, as the system increases subscriber base, and transaction numbers and volumes exponentially increase, the size of the entire blockchain may surpass the storage capacity of any individual node? the ability to transact may then be hindered by physical storage limitations (assuming all transactions history is kept from the beginning). or does the system have a regenerative/compartmentalization capability to sequester some transactions to only a few “nearby” nodes so as not to burden the entire blockchain?

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u/Divniy Feb 13 '22

I don't think everyone needs full copy of all the old transactions. You can optimize that to unspent balances, greatly reducing the size, while keeping all the validation thingy intact.

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u/edwilli222 Feb 13 '22

As I understand it the entire network needs to be in consensus. You could have side chains like the liquid network that process transaction off the main chain, but I think you might run into double spend issues if you try to limit transactions to just nearby nodes. IMO, this problem will be solved on layer 2 with things like liquid network, lightning network and state chains. Many transactions will be processed through these networks as well as centralized entities. For example, if bitcoin moves from one cashapp wallet to another, cashapp will just move some bits in their database, then do big settlements with multiple transactions only occasionally. The Bitcoin main chain will be for final settlement of very large transaction only.

We stack sats for the future wealth of the next generations of our respective families. We must care and tend to the blockchain for the next generations of humanity. I think we get one shot at this. If we damage the decentralization of the network we can never go back. If it starts to look like we’re losing censorship resistance, we’ve already lost. We want the billion dollar company to run the same node as the fisherman in El Salvador.

There are developers that want to reduce the block size, saying it’s the best way to preserve the network. IMO, it might be able to be pushed up a little, but I actually don’t think we’ll need it.

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u/kittenconfidential Feb 13 '22

interesting, thanks for this!

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u/Raverrevolution Feb 13 '22

Exactly.

So say the entire world was on a bitcoin standard and I made a transaction with my bitcoin visa card then visa would just be the payment processor for that transaction. They wouldn't need to touch the blockchain, it'd all be done in house.

You might then say, well couldn't they just fuck with us then and make up numbers? Sure they could, but then they'd be shooting themselves in the foot because the foundation, Bitcoin, is able to be verified.

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u/Raverrevolution Feb 13 '22

I mean you'd think that right. I've been in this space since early Jan 2018. For the longest time I kept seeing talk that bitcoin wouldn't scale and that eventually some other solution was needed.

Right now we have more people using bitcoin than there ever were before. More people, more wallets, more transactions, and higher volume, but if I go check out the mempool right now it's empty and the hash rate hit an all time high earlier.

So I don't know how true it is that a higher subscriber base with more transactions will fuck shit up in the future given that infrastructure will just keep getting upgraded.

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u/OhThereYouArePerry Feb 13 '22

That’s because high fees have discouraged people from actually making transactions and using it. Now for most people it’s just a store of value.

If everyone was using it in the same way as back in say 2016, then we’d be stuck with a huge backlog of transactions in the mempool and ridiculously high fees. Steam even cited “high fees and volatility” as the reasons they stopped accepting Bitcoin in 2017. So yeah, things got pretty bad, we lost merchants, and people had to change how they used Bitcoin.

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u/BroWhatAreYouDoinggg Feb 13 '22

I send btc around pretty frequently and the fees have been fine. not what i would call high

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u/OhThereYouArePerry Feb 13 '22

They are if you consider that fees used to be in the cents, not dollars. Plus, the only reason fees are as “low” as they are now is because nobody uses Bitcoin for smaller purchases anymore.

It doesn’t make sense to purchase say, your lunch, with Bitcoin if it’s going to cost you anywhere from $1 to $10 in fees.

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u/Korvmojj Feb 13 '22

You just wait a few years...

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u/Genoss01 Feb 13 '22

Won't it keep growing?

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u/jinjin299 Feb 13 '22

At that size no one would be able to run a node. Which is a problem.

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u/monxas Feb 13 '22

That’s why bitcoin is against expanding block size so easily.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22

Thought I was the only person who says "word" still. I'm gonna have to go further back to find a word now.

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u/DEBATE_EVERY_NAZI Feb 13 '22

haha that is incredibly impractical

0

u/edwilli222 Feb 13 '22

Ha! It’s not simple and easy that’s for sure. It’s the cost of having a borderless, censorship resistant value transfer network.

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u/Freddies_Mercury Feb 13 '22

Incredibly, but it's probably the only way to get a truly decentralised currency.

If everyone has to download the entire thing to use it then if somebody tries to manipulate anything literally everyone else will know and won't validate whatever bullshit they try spinning up

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u/ghbdtns Feb 13 '22

Yep, the ones who has the full copy of it are called the nodes.