<p>I wonder how the whole Bitcoin blockchain system will scale in the future. Given the fact that the size of the blockchain will grow exponentially (roughly a <a href="https://blockchain.info/charts/blocks-size?timespan=all&amp;scale=1" rel="nofollow">tenfold every ~3 years</a>, looking at the recent years) but HDDs only <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hard_drive_capacity_over_time.svg" rel="nofollow">tenfold every ~5 years</a>, this will become a problem.</p>

<p>The conclusion here would then be that individual users could not save the whole Blockchain on their PCs anymore. This, again, would mean that people would need to prune their Blockchains, but by doing so, old Blocks would be deleted and they could not create new transactions anymore (is this correct?).</p>

<p>And by looking at the largest miners, the 51% problem is already a major thing which only would get worse if small players could not participate anymore.</p>

<p>This would then lead to an Oligopoly of Bitcoin masters that could easily control the <em>truth</em>, not so far away from todays centralized banking system.</p>

<p>I hope all my assumptions are correct and somebody can follow up and answer this, thanks.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-04T00:31:21.100Z
`old Blocks would be deleted and they could not create new transactions anymore` Huh? That's not how pruning works.
Nick ODell
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-04T04:05:04.487Z
Check out lightning network. Its a way to send off blockchain transactions in a trustless manner.
abeikverdi
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-10-25T23:12:09.773Z
The blockchain won't grow exponentially, as it is limited to grow by approximately 1MiB per ten minutes for the time being. This might change to 4MiB per ten minutes in the coming months, but for the foreseeable future definitely not exponential growth. Mining centralization is a concern, but it's not quite true that we're constantly exposed to a majority attack. Miners also cannot control the whole truth, they can just censor transactions from becoming truth. You can read more about → [tag:pruning] ← here.
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-11T17:51:09.463Z
This question would benefit from making less assumptions (several of which are not correct) and asking about a better confined topic. – I don't think this question is useful as it is, and if it remains so, it should perhaps be closed as "too broad".
Murch
<blockchain><scalability><storage-footprint><governance>
How will Bitcoin and the Blockchain scale in the future?
Martin
# How will Bitcoin and the Blockchain scale in the future?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-08-03)

I wonder how the whole Bitcoin blockchain system will scale in the future. Given the fact that the size of the blockchain will grow exponentially (roughly a [tenfold every ~3 years](https://blockchain.info/charts/blocks-size?timespan=all&scale=1), looking at the recent years) but HDDs only [tenfold every ~5 years](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hard_drive_capacity_over_time.svg), this will become a problem.

The conclusion here would then be that individual users could not save the whole Blockchain on their PCs anymore. This, again, would mean that people would need to prune their Blockchains, but by doing so, old Blocks would be deleted and they could not create new transactions anymore (is this correct?).

And by looking at the largest miners, the 51% problem is already a major thing which only would get worse if small players could not participate anymore.

This would then lead to an Oligopoly of Bitcoin masters that could easily control the *truth*, not so far away from todays centralized banking system.

I hope all my assumptions are correct and somebody can follow up and answer this, thanks.

**Tags:** blockchain, scalability, storage-footprint, governance

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: `old Blocks would be deleted and they could not create new transactions anymore` Huh? That's not how pruning works.  
> **username_2**: Check out lightning network. Its a way to send off blockchain transactions in a trustless manner.  
> **username_3**: The blockchain won't grow exponentially, as it is limited to grow by approximately 1MiB per ten minutes for the time being. This might change to 4MiB per ten minutes in the coming months, but for the foreseeable future definitely not exponential growth. Mining centralization is a concern, but it's not quite true that we're constantly exposed to a majority attack. Miners also cannot control the whole truth, they can just censor transactions from becoming truth. You can read more about → [tag:pruning] ← here.  
> **username_3**: This question would benefit from making less assumptions (several of which are not correct) and asking about a better confined topic. – I don't think this question is useful as it is, and if it remains so, it should perhaps be closed as "too broad".  

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