Are there ways to reduce the size of the block chain? Or will we get to the point where only large service providers can hold the block chain?
I ask because I was maintaining my own wallet for awhile but stopped because the block chain database was getting unwieldy - it would take up to a week to resync if I ever turned my wallet software off for a significant amount of time.
You know though... I actually don't care. Bitcoin was an interesting curiosity and useful in some situations (transferring money to people in rural areas of 3rd world countries, for example), but it's slow (up to 15 minutes for the transaction to be approved?), has high fees in its transactions and even higher to convert from/to cash, it's unwieldy...
To use it from consumer devices would require someone else managing the wallet, and at that point I'll instead just use cash or a credit card.
I ask because I was maintaining my own wallet for awhile but stopped because the block chain database was getting unwieldy - it would take up to a week to resync if I ever turned my wallet software off for a significant amount of time.
You know though... I actually don't care. Bitcoin was an interesting curiosity and useful in some situations (transferring money to people in rural areas of 3rd world countries, for example), but it's slow (up to 15 minutes for the transaction to be approved?), has high fees in its transactions and even higher to convert from/to cash, it's unwieldy...
To use it from consumer devices would require someone else managing the wallet, and at that point I'll instead just use cash or a credit card.