<p>Pruned nodes forget blocks after a while after processing. However, this is independent from whether those blocks have a witness.</p>

<p>SegWit does permit a half-pruned state, where witnesses are removed but the rest of the block is kept. That state is enough to serve lightweight nodes (which don't care about witnesses), but not enough to serve other full nodes. As far as I know, no full node software has implemented that half-pruned state.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-01T02:39:16.603Z
Is the half pruned node state worth revisiting in bitcoin core? Seems like it would save a lot of disk space without loosing the ability to rescan blocks for transactions in newly imported wallets.
user1748155
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-07T17:12:49.417Z
2017-10-07T17:12:49.417Z
Pieter Wuille
<p>What happens to witness blocks after they are broadcast to other witness nodes? Are they kept or forgotten after some blocks?</p>

<block><segregated-witness><witness-data>
What happens to witness blocks?
MCCCS
# What happens to witness blocks?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-10-07)

What happens to witness blocks after they are broadcast to other witness nodes? Are they kept or forgotten after some blocks?

**Tags:** block, segregated-witness, witness-data


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-10-07. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Pruned nodes forget blocks after a while after processing. However, this is independent from whether those blocks have a witness.

SegWit does permit a half-pruned state, where witnesses are removed but the rest of the block is kept. That state is enough to serve lightweight nodes (which don't care about witnesses), but not enough to serve other full nodes. As far as I know, no full node software has implemented that half-pruned state.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Is the half pruned node state worth revisiting in bitcoin core? Seems like it would save a lot of disk space without loosing the ability to rescan blocks for transactions in newly imported wallets.  

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