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Ask HN: Smallest blockchain?

Posted by ateesdalejr on Friday January 19, 2018 @04:55PM
from the ask-hn dept.
Are there any cryptocurrencies that focus on small blockchain size? For example bitcoin's blockchain is more than 100GB this might be a bit too large for someone who only has say a 256GB hard-drive. Are there any cryptocurrencies that focus on having the most space efficient blockchain? Say, maybe a few GB?
( 5 comments | 5 points | on HN )
Re:Ask HN: Smallest blockchain? by tromp on Saturday January 20, 2018 @10:33AM (#16193667)
The MimbleWimble design [1] allows inputs to be cancelled against the outputs they spend, with no loss of security. Essentially, the entire blockchain history may be collapsed to a single mega transaction, with all coinbases as inputs and the UTXO set as outputs. In his recent talk [2], Andrew Poelstra discusses the achievable savings relative to the bitcoin blockchain.

[1] http://mimblewimble.cash/20160719-OriginalWhitePaper.txt

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovCBT1gyk9c

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Smallest blockchain? by wakeywakeywakey on Friday January 19, 2018 @05:08PM (#16190305)
They don't need to 'focus' on that, since there are various strategies to achieve it without redesigning the blockchain as a whole. For example, there are light clients [1] you can run which only download part of the blockchain and still provide some guarantees.

[1]: https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Light-client-protocol

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Smallest blockchain? by ateesdalejr on Friday January 19, 2018 @05:27PM (#16190459)
The only problem I have with a light client is the fact that it is nigh to the impossible to do any sort of mining at all.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Smallest blockchain? by useranme on Sunday January 21, 2018 @11:57AM (#16198746)
I'm curious, why is it impossible? I don't know much about mining.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Smallest blockchain? by rhlala on Friday January 19, 2018 @11:19PM (#16192033)
The hole raiblock is 1.7g for 5millions + transactions
[ Parent | on HN ]