Quote from: Robotguy on September 08, 2011, 08:36:37 PM

Do I have to download all blocks since the beginning of bitcoin existence.

Yes.

Quote from: Robotguy on September 08, 2011, 08:36:37 PM

What will happen to the poor chump in the future, oh let's say 2056, when e decides he want's to open a bitcoin account? Will that poor chump have to download all the blocks since the beginning of bitcoin existence?

Yes, but internet speeds will be much faster and there are optimizations that can be implemented that will make the block download faster. For example, the Android Wallet downloads the blockchain pretty fast.