<p>Actually, as Satoshi explained in his paper, you can use a Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) client which would only require you to download the headers of each block.</p>

<p>From the paper itself:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>As such, the verification is reliable as long as honest nodes control the network, but is more vulnerable if the network is overpowered by an attacker. </p>
</blockquote>

<p>So if you're not mining, and the network is overpowered by honest nodes (as it should always be for Bitcoin's integrity) you don't need to use a full node.</p>

<p>Bitcoin-QT is a full node probably because it's the official client and it bundles all the features since day one. Using something like MultiBit, which is an SPV client, would offer you the same exact amount of security as Bitcoin-QT.</p>

<p>So no, the increasing size of the blockchain is not really a blocker for Bitcoin's adoption because only miners would need the entire blockchain data.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-12T00:26:32.947Z
2014-01-12T00:26:32.947Z
Luca Matteis
<p>Today blockchain is about 14GB large. It is considerably big. And it has been growing exponentially these days. Have a look at the <a href="http://blockchain.info/charts/blocks-size?timespan=all&amp;showDataPoints=false&amp;daysAverageString=1&amp;show_header=true&amp;scale=0&amp;address=" rel="nofollow">chart</a> representing size of the blockchain over time.</p>

<p>In my opinion this is technical constraint that needs to be considered, because Bitcoin blockchian may only become bigger and it will become bigger quite quickly.</p>

<p>I don't think the issue is size, but actually the computational power required to analyze the blockchain when clients are syncing with network. As everybody how ever installed Bitcoin-Qt recently knows the syncing process requires lots of local resources.</p>

<p>I'm aware that there are lightwaight clients as well, but as far as I understand the full nodes are actually comprising the network so therefore they are essential for the network to exist and expand.</p>

<p>On the other hand the community is very creative and keeps innovating, so I think this is a matter of time until we see solution here. For example for today blockchain is available via Torrent network for download.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-11T21:59:37.480Z
Perhaps GB instead of MB?
kaoD
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-07T04:07:10.170Z
"it has been growing exponentially these days" -- when I look at the graph you link to it's really flat over the last year. I.e. linear growth, not exponential.
dchapes
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-10T19:22:37.503Z
If you look at a short period the growth seems linear. Right now, about one year after this post the size added to the blockchain is more than doubled. If this trend continues I don't think storage will scale either.
kon psych
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-11T21:14:06.703Z
2014-01-12T00:16:10.860Z
2014-01-12T00:16:10.860Z
Tomasz Blachowicz
<p>When I run bitcoin-qt, I noticed that it is taking lot of time to download recent blocks. It gives me impression that the more transactions, the bigger the blockchain. Even today the download is taking around a day. What happens after a year?</p>

<p>It may easily take more than 5 days. If it grows huge, can the current software handle it? </p>

<p>What is the estimation of the blockchain to grow in next 10 years? Is it possible to split the blockchain into multiple blockchains? Could it become a blocker for Bitcoin adoption?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-11T21:16:35.917Z
Good insight can be found here: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/2798/are-there-any-studies-into-the-size-of-the-blockchain-scaling-over-time
Tomasz Blachowicz
<blockchain><scalability>
Can blockchain size become a blocker for bitcoin adoption?
ghalways
# Can blockchain size become a blocker for bitcoin adoption?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-01-11)

When I run bitcoin-qt, I noticed that it is taking lot of time to download recent blocks. It gives me impression that the more transactions, the bigger the blockchain. Even today the download is taking around a day. What happens after a year?

It may easily take more than 5 days. If it grows huge, can the current software handle it?

What is the estimation of the blockchain to grow in next 10 years? Is it possible to split the blockchain into multiple blockchains? Could it become a blocker for Bitcoin adoption?

**Tags:** blockchain, scalability

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Good insight can be found here: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/2798/are-there-any-studies-into-the-size-of-the-blockchain-scaling-over-time  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-01-12. Score: 4

Actually, as Satoshi explained in his paper, you can use a Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) client which would only require you to download the headers of each block.

From the paper itself:

> As such, the verification is reliable as long as honest nodes control the network, but is more vulnerable if the network is overpowered by an attacker.

So if you're not mining, and the network is overpowered by honest nodes (as it should always be for Bitcoin's integrity) you don't need to use a full node.

Bitcoin-QT is a full node probably because it's the official client and it bundles all the features since day one. Using something like MultiBit, which is an SPV client, would offer you the same exact amount of security as Bitcoin-QT.

So no, the increasing size of the blockchain is not really a blocker for Bitcoin's adoption because only miners would need the entire blockchain data.


---

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-01-11. Score: 2

Today blockchain is about 14GB large. It is considerably big. And it has been growing exponentially these days. Have a look at the [chart](http://blockchain.info/charts/blocks-size?timespan=all&showDataPoints=false&daysAverageString=1&show_header=true&scale=0&address=) representing size of the blockchain over time.

In my opinion this is technical constraint that needs to be considered, because Bitcoin blockchian may only become bigger and it will become bigger quite quickly.

I don't think the issue is size, but actually the computational power required to analyze the blockchain when clients are syncing with network. As everybody how ever installed Bitcoin-Qt recently knows the syncing process requires lots of local resources.

I'm aware that there are lightwaight clients as well, but as far as I understand the full nodes are actually comprising the network so therefore they are essential for the network to exist and expand.

On the other hand the community is very creative and keeps innovating, so I think this is a matter of time until we see solution here. For example for today blockchain is available via Torrent network for download.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Perhaps GB instead of MB?  
> **username_4**: "it has been growing exponentially these days" -- when I look at the graph you link to it's really flat over the last year. I.e. linear growth, not exponential.  
> **username_5**: If you look at a short period the growth seems linear. Right now, about one year after this post the size added to the blockchain is more than doubled. If this trend continues I don't think storage will scale either.  

---

