> The fact that the blockchain _is_ fully stored and verified by a number of distributed parties, and that you do have the ability of downloading and verifying if you want or need to, is enough to keep the system honest.

How will you download and verify the chain when it hits double digit TBs?

How about 10 years from now, when the storage requirements are an order of magnitude greater than that? The rate of growth is far outstripping consumer storage device capacity...