Hello everyone. My bitcoin client is currently synchronizing and has 191762 / 195388 = 98.15% of the blocks downloaded. It is going really slowly, maybe only 4 blocks a minute. At this rate it will take about a day to finish. Is this normal?
Normal. Especially if you are using an encrypted filesystem.
Yep, I am.
Obviously it could not have taken this long on the earlier blocks. Is it because of higher transaction volume as of late or what?
Yup,
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http://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?timespan=allThe most recent release of the client, v0.6.3, performs better than older versions.
Upcoming versions (w/ LevelDB, Ultraprune) will make this much less of an issue.
Electrum is a good alternative that requires no blockchain download. The keys are kept local/private.
Thanks! I have the 0.6.3 beta.