New Torrent for Bitcoin Core: Is It Worth It?

Hey everyone, I’ve got something exciting to share a torrent for the latest Bitcoin Core. This is meant to make it easier to handle the big blockchain files. It’s not a one-off thing, I’m keeping it updated with all the original blocks too.

Appreciate the effort, but be careful. Not everyone will trust you blindly. Remember, trust is a big issue here. Plus, no need to include wallet.dat or debug.log files.

Trust isn’t really needed. The torrent-enabled node checks with its peers for the latest headers and can pull blocks from the torrent if it has them.

The main bottleneck for most users isn’t the download speed but the validation process. If you download this torrent, you’ll have to validate after the fact, which might actually take longer than just using Bitcoin Core.

But you’re skipping important validation steps initially. If you start from a certain height, you might hit a wall with download speed.

Unless you're on weaker hardware, that’s not really true. Validation is pretty parallel, but if the software isn’t optimized, downloading via torrent and then validating can slow you down.

Thanks for the insight, but honestly, as Leo and Greg said, I’m not sure this is necessary at all. The blockchain is already backed up across tons of nodes, right?

If the data is messed up or corrupted, you’ll waste time and bandwidth. So, what happens if the data isn’t solid?

That’s how Bitcoin Core works! If you dump.blk files, it checks with peers first for headers before relying on those files from the torrent.

I’m here to clarify this torrent idea. Trust is key, and I’m committed to keeping the blockchain files authentic and secure.

But this whole thing seems flawed. You’re trying to replace a decentralized network with another one using torrents. It’s basically the same process.

Thanks for breaking it down! The title is right; only Bitcoin Core or similar software can actually use these files.

I don’t need your assurances. I can download the blockchain directly, thanks. Verify it, don’t trust it.

Not sure about this. Seems unnecessary.

But we have to trust you to some extent. If you mess up the files, users could end up downloading junk data.

Exactly! Torrenting and validating seems less efficient than just using Core to do both at the same time. Why complicate things?

I’d advise against trusting this user. They’ve got a sketchy past with services and products. Just a heads up.

Is this what’s in the torrent? Why share wallet.dat and all that? If Bitcoin Core was running, those files might be incomplete.

Rescanning doesn’t change the blocks. You’d need to reindex, but that won’t speed things up compared to normal syncing.

You’re not an official contributor, so claiming that is misleading. Thanks for the heads-up on this.