Quote from: NorrisK on October 10, 2016, 07:08:05 AM

Quote from: coinzat on October 10, 2016, 06:25:00 AM

the problem with blockchain is not only the size but also the huge bandwidth it is using. many countries now has no unlimited internet bundles and when they finish their packages the speed gets very slow. so why would I spend my internet on something I do not have to ! which is running a node

I read that currently it takes about 200 GB a month to run the node for bitcoin only. Imagine some downloads or streaming movies through netflix etc, you could start hitting the limits of your connection quite fast.

And even with unlimited bandwidth, most providers have fair use policies which indeed may throttle your connection or even get you warnings to lower your data usage and ultimately getting cut of completely.

I still think a lot of bandwidth can be saved by using smaller chunks of the blockchain by many users instead of the whole thing by few users.

the blockchain historic data, is an initial large "chunk" of under 100gb (needed just once) and then thats it for a large "chunk".

after its downloaded the historic data "chunk", you are then only getting live data in small "chunks".. these are called blocks, which average 1mb every 10 minutes. and then transaction data which you get aswell

but remember your not constantly downloading the <100gb large chunk of historic data each month.. only the live data

this live data can be controlled to an extent
the more 'connections' to other nodes you have the more bandwidth you need to use to send the same data out again to those other nodes.
the less 'connections' to other nodes you have the less bandwidth you need to use to send the same data out again to those other nodes.
by connecting to stable nodes that are already synced reduces sending out historic data.
by connecting to unstable nodes that are not already synced increasing sending out historic data.

so if you have a internet contract with limited bandwidth, but your node has 25+ connections. then yes expect to be using 200gb a month bandwidth.

try 10 connections, limit forming a connection to anyone that is well well behind in syncing.. you will thank yourself for seeing less bandwidth per month being used for live data.

think of it like torrents. many merchants/miners and dedicated users have good internet and have real desire to be nodes, so they can be considered as the seeders. then there are the average guy with slow internet that dont critically need to be node(they dont have a bitcoin business or spend much bitcoin) so they can limit themselves while still being part of the network but with only a few connections. these can be considered leachers.

i would rather have leachers only having a couple connections so that they are not interrupting many people. and leachers would rather have
less connections so they are not using as much data. so its win win