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Date: Thu, 10 May 2018 12:52:41 +0200
From: "Patrick Shirkey" <pshirkey@boosthardware.com>
To: "Bitcoin Protocol Discussion" <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>
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Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Why not archive the backend of Bitcoin blockchain?
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> On 3/17/18, someone posted on the Lightning-dev list, "Can I try
> Lightning without running a fully-fledged bitcoin block chain? (Yubin
> Ruan)."  The inquirer was asking because he didn't have much space to
> store the entire blockchain on his laptop.
>
> I replied:
>
> "Developers,
>
> On THIS note and slightly off-topic but relevant, why can't chunks of
> blockchain peel off the backend periodically and be archived, say on
> minimum of 150 computers across 7 continents?
>
> It seems crazy to continue adding on to an increasingly long chain to
> infinity if the old chapters (i.e. more than, say, 2 years old) could be
> stored in an evenly distributed manner across the planet. The same 150
> computers would not need to store every chapter either, just the index
> would need to be widely distributed in order to reconnect with a chapter
> if needed. Then maybe it is no longer a limitation in the future for
> people like Yubin. "
>
> It was suggested by a couple of lightning developers that I post this
> idea on the bitcoin-dev list.  So, here I post :).
>

You can already use the "prune" flag to get a snapshot of the blockchain
but it is incompatible with "txindex" and "rescan" so maybe that is and
issue for lightning nodes?


-- 
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware