Post
Topic
Board Development & Technical Discussion
Re: Can I just run a pruned node without downloading historical data?
by
n0nce
on 10/10/2021, 10:46:27 UTC
The cost of hardware is not the only cost of running a full node. Users must also have an internet connection that is sufficient to handle block downloads and the initial blockchain sync. For most of the "first world", this is not an issue as users will have an existing broadband connection they use and need for other reasons. There are "data caps" in some parts of the world that limit the amount of data a customer can transfer per month without paying an overage fee. If you have a data cap, there is a good chance the 350 GB initial blockchain download will exceed your cap, as there are very few legitimate reasons to need to download that much data in one month (the initial blockchain download is probably the only legitimate reason for most non-business users of an internet connection).
You're right; if we look at sites like https://bitnodes.io/ it is clear BTC full nodes should be more decentralized, especially in developing countries.

https://bitnodes.io/

This is now going a bit off-topic, we could create a new topic for 'bringing BTC full nodes to developing countries' to gather ideas Smiley But a few thoughts:
If they don't run a full node (this topic is about pruned nodes), the decentralization is not really better; it's just maybe better for them (anonymity when looking up blockchain information). If there's no way to get an uncapped data connection, it might be an idea to sell / gift HDDs with blockchain sync on them to such countries. They should download Core and verify it themselves; then the software will verify all blocks when starting up, so the users don't really run a risk there of 'trusting someones IBD'.
With regards to legitimate use of bandwidth: way back, when I started my first Bitcoin node, I checked my family's monthly data consumption to see if it would jump up significantly with a node running, and it was ~300GB of all legitimate data Grin So it's not unreasonably much. There are also schools, student dorms etc. which share a connection and go terabytes per month at least. But I agree; some places indeed don't offer unmetered, so we need a solution for that, which still allows people to have the full blockchain locally.