Bitcoin/blocks folder up to 17gb

Question

So I have downloaded Bitcoin-QT v0.8.6-beta. It has downloaded everything and now this folder:

C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin\blocks

is 17GB

Anyway to prune/delete something?

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 06 '14 at 18:35

The 17 GB of data in your blocks folder is the blockchain. This is the public ledger of all transactions in the Bitcoin network, from day one. A full node needs all this data to check each new block that arrives from the network. As time goes on, the size of the blockchain will only increase.

There exist other clients such as MultiBit which do not require the full blockchain download. These are called SPV or Simplified Payment Verification clients.

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 06 '14 at 17:29

3

There's no way to make this smaller. Deleting the files here will cause your node to crash. If space is a problem use a lite client like Electrum or Multibit which does not require a blockchain download.

answered Mar 06 '14 at 17:29

user13413

940
4
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Electrum or Multibit? which is better? – dynamic Mar 07 '14 at 00:15
Electrum is a lot friendlier, and the backups are safer. – user13413 Mar 07 '14 at 19:12

Bitcoin/blocks folder up to 17gb

2 Answers2