Like I said, with some DSL connections it's technically almost impossible to achieve (except you let your computer run 24/7 for some time). I'll try to reseed about half of the blockchain, I don't think I have the time and patience to reseed it entirely. I also need to delete the blockchain torrent eventually, to have more free space on my HDD for other torrents again. Such an ENORMOUS single file does bring about some problems on some set ups. ;-)

Of course I posted my tip for those that care about their ratio, not for those that don't care. ;-)

Not necessarily. If you had a ratio of e.g. 2.0, you'd have to upload the file twice to get your old ratio back. For people with an average DSL connection, with typically fast download speeds but low upload speeds, that's almost impossible to achieve, especially when they prefer to go about other torrents. So, using a different torrent client exclusively for the blockchain torrent, is a simple way to keep your old ratio.

I'd like to post a suggestion for those who are about to download the torrent blockchain and who care about their existing fine torrent ratio in their old torrent client:

With such a huge download (21GB right now), any sweet torrent ratio will inevitably get borked quickly (depending on how many GB you had uploaded previously). To save your old nice torrent ratio, consider getting a new torrent client (preferably a "portable" one) and use it only for downloading the blockchain. When you decide to seed it (either part of it, or 100% or more of it), you can load it in your old torrent client, and even improve your old ratio quite substantially by seeding that huge database.

I wish I had done it like that, before I fucked up my cute old torrent ratio with this blockchain torrent. ;-)

...and I'm not using any anti-virus either! LOL Sorry, my system is failsafe whatever any "geek" or "IT-expert" may say to the contrary. And I'm not going to discuss it either. Period!

Electrum doesn't run here because I have only XP with SP1 installed (and I won't update for various reasons). Some software requires at least SP2 to run. Of course, MultiBit requires Java to be installed. So, I'm sticking to MultiBit with Java now.

I've given up now using Bitcoin Core with its 21 GB (and growing) database because simply starting it with an up-to-date database, it would take about 20 minutes on my computer to "verify" before the program could be used ...and then it would still take quite some time until the newest blocks were downloaded. That's a no-go for me. Considering that I'll perhaps make one bitcoin transaction every few months and I'd then have to wait for hours to download the newest blocks, MultiBit is the right solution for me.

I'll keep seeding the torrented blockchain for a while and use it to test my new VPN connection (I only started using bitcoin to pay for the VPN service in the first place). I'll also be on the look-out for future improved versions of Bitcoin Core (as hinted at by jgarzik) and test them once in a while. It IS a fascinating project.

Sounds good. May it arrive soon.


Like I mentioned already, as it is right now, it seems to be more suitable for geeks (preferably with a second computer). It shouldn't be like that. It should be also for the average user.

It would have helped, if in the very FIRST POST some of the problems to be encountered with the database would have been mentioned:

1. For instance, it isn't mentioned that you need a free space of over TWICE the size of the database on a partition to be able to "import" the torrented database. I was moving data around like crazy between partitions and external HDDs, just to be able to accomodate that huge database. And later I had to move around yet more data when I found out that I needed twice the size to "import" the database successfully. I also found out that I couldn't move the database to an external HDD at all because of that file size limit mentioned only later somewhere in this thread.

2. Also, the fact that the process of only IMPORTING from the torrented database (not just downloading through the client) will take quite a few days (with the computer using up almost all system resources and slowing down other processes) should be mentioned in the FIRST post, so people get an inkling of what's coming towards them. I've gone too far by now (with 19,6 GB successfully imported) to give up at this point. I'll probably carry through to the end, then see how the client behaves during future updates ...and then probably delete the database and stick to MultiBit.

I do have MultiBit already (to make it run, I had to install bulky Java again, after I had uninstalled it just a few weeks ago, duh). Electrum didn't run here at all. I sure would have liked to handle it the more professional and securer way, with the database. Maybe I'll go at it slowly, importing a few spare hours every day, though that will make importing the final two gigabytes last for a week probably.

Regarding the torrent, I always thought, if a torrent file had been tampered with, it would be rejected by trackers. But I trust, if it worked like that, the good people here would have used it that way already long time ago.

I'm totally new to bitcoin and I just have to get this off my chest now: dealing with that huge database was one of the most nightmarish computer experiences I ever had.

Why does nobody ever mention that it's not just the slow download that makes getting the database such a pest, but also the IMPORTING of the full database? I first downloaded 17,2 GB successfully through the software, then I got your torrent with the intention of speeding things up. Now I find out that IMPORTING the database is AT LEAST as slow as downloading it.

My nice old torrent ratio is fucked up now. I will need a new external HDD, if I want to keep that intractable database (I'm one of those that couldn't move it around between partitions because of the size limit mentioned in this thread). And I STILL haven't got the database working. I feel like my computer and my HDDs, running at full speed, have aged by several years over the last days ...and so have I.

Using bitcoin together with that database seems to be for geeks that have at least one spare computer at home and can use it for installing and importing this intractable database.

I'll probably give up over the next days, if "importing" the final 2 GB from the database will never stop (it sure looks like it), and probably will stick to using online wallets. This is simply too much for me, my nerves and my computer.

I wonder, why can't the database be torrented in its original form (the way it appears after it is imported), so it only needs to be verified within perhaps half an hour or so and not "imported" over several days?

BTW, the download of the torrented database went real fast at full speed (16 MB here), and it's nice to see that there are so many generous contributors (seeders) in the community.