The blockchain is a list of all transactions that have occurred using the bitcoin currency.
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4answers
2k views
What happens once mining reward gets cut in half?
Sometime around the end of 2012 the mining reward is expected to be cut in half from 50BTC/block to 25BTC/block.
What effect will this have? Doesn't this mean it will be less economic to run a ...
1
vote
2answers
323 views
Does blockchain.info show all transactions?
My client is still syncing, so I've been checking my transactions on blockchain.info. It only shows two transactions although I know I should have more than that when I search my address. I'm new to ...
1
vote
2answers
136 views
how http://blockchain.info/, http://blockexplorer.com/q or http://www.bitcoinmonitor.com/ works [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How can I read information from the blockchain?
Can anyone tell me from where exactly sites like
http://www.bitcoinmonitor.com/
http://blockchain.info/
can't post ...
-2
votes
1answer
315 views
What computations does Btcoin perform during mining? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What exactly is Mining?
What are the exact computations dies Bitcoin is performing during the mining?
I understood that it has to do something with hashes and ...
1
vote
1answer
148 views
What is the key difference between the Proof of Activity proposal and Proof of Stake?
coblee (Litecoin creator) suggested a new Proof of Activity method, to complement Proof of Work, instead of using Proof of Stake (oh my!)
Can someone provide a tl;dr of what is the key problem in PoS ...
1
vote
1answer
186 views
At the 95% mark for hours
My Bitcoin app (the latest OS X client) is downloading the chain. It has been at the 95% mark for many hours now. It's progressing, but very slowly.
Is this normal?
I would think so, because this is ...
2
votes
1answer
125 views
What method does My Wallet use to encode messages in the blockchain?
What kind of protocol does My Wallet use?
2
votes
1answer
128 views
What is the standard deviation of block generation times?
A block is generated every 10 minutes, on average.
What is the standard deviation of this distribution?
It seems to be a measurable property, not a calculable one.
Is there a chart of the standard ...
4
votes
1answer
177 views
Do transactions and blocks get relayed even if a node believes them to be invalid?
Each node has a very clear view of what is valid and what is not. With conflicting blocks (Blockchain fork) or transactions (double-spending attack) it will always choose the first it sees, until it ...
2
votes
1answer
1k views
How do you import Block Chain from bitcoincharts?
I went to http://eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/ and downloaded the most recent build. Then I extracted it and was left with BLK0001.dat and BLK0002.dat. What is the next step? I tried replacing the ...
2
votes
1answer
321 views
Upper limit on the blockchain file size with pruning?
If blockchain pruning is implemented is there a theoretical upper limit on the blockchain file size?
My thinking is something like with "pruned" blockchain you only store the details of the unspent ...
3
votes
2answers
134 views
Can I see all transactions not included in a block yet?
I'm running bitcoind and would like to see which transactions I've received but haven't been included in a block yet. Is that possible, or do I need to run special mining software to see that?
4
votes
2answers
342 views
How can I read information from the blockchain?
I don't want to use an existing service, like Blockchain.info or BlockExplorer.com. Is there some library out there that will let me read the blockchain programatically?
5
votes
1answer
1k views
Can the blk0001.dat and blk0002.dat files be deleted?
I have a Bitcoin installation on an SD card, and the blockchain files (blk0001.dat specifically) take up nearly 4 GB of disk space.
Can the blk0001.dat and blk0002.dat files be safely deleted to free ...
7
votes
1answer
319 views
What happens when a miner does not claim all fees/generated coins?
Suppose that a miner for some reason has the generation transaction of their blocks not take all the possible coins. This can happen for a variety of reasons, almost all of which are bugs:
An ...
4
votes
1answer
208 views
Where on the web can I find out the current total blockchain size?
This question partially asked the same thing, but only got a response for viewing the size when you have the client installed.
I want to know the total blockchain size without having to install the ...
3
votes
1answer
650 views
How do I open an Armory .wallet file in the MultiBit Client?
Sorry, I'm incredibly new to this whole thing. I started off using the Armory Client for my Bitcoin wallet then was suggested to try "MultiBit". I've saved my .wallet file from Armory, however ...
5
votes
2answers
84 views
When will a block not be forwarded?
I'm currently trying to detect blockchain forks and I noticed that even when dumping all blocks I get to a separate file I seem to miss a few.
Specifically I'm looking for the blocks marked as ...
4
votes
3answers
299 views
When downloading the blockchain for the first time using bitcoind, how do I know when it's done?
I'm using bitcoind on Ubuntu, headless. So there's no GUI to tell me when it's done.
So how do I know?
5
votes
2answers
394 views
Defense from Government Intervention
What's to stop a government, say the U.S. government, from saying "Hey, it's okay if you want to use Bitcoins, but you have to use at least version 0.6.3".
And then a year later changing the law to ...
3
votes
3answers
219 views
Why are balances not in the blockchain?
Currently one needs to traverse the full blockchain to determine the balance of a certain address. Wouldn't it be much more efficient to include the new balance along with each transaction? That way ...
1
vote
1answer
414 views
Will the transaction fee economy in Bitcoin follow the commission model?
I've been analyzing the long term results of the block chain. In the process I realized the relationship between the distribution of coins over time, transaction fees, and coins being lost. The full ...
3
votes
3answers
298 views
how can I insert an arbitrary sha256 hash into the blockchain?
If I want to prove that I wrote a particular document before a certain point in time, it would be sufficient to generate the sha256 hash of the document and somehow arrange for that hash to appear in ...
1
vote
1answer
569 views
Bitcoin Block Download frozen
For 5 days now my block download has been frozen at 57%. I tried downloading a new wallet to a different computer (which did download all the way), but I can't figure out how to pull the information ...
7
votes
6answers
649 views
Can more than 1 block be solved per 10 mins on average (LONG TERM)?
I am wondering whether it is possible for a supercomputer to find the next 1000 blocks in a very short amount of time. Hypothetically, if a government agency concentrated a supercomputer on hashing, ...
1
vote
2answers
234 views
Alternative incentives for miners
Currently the incentives for miners are the block-awards and transaction fees. Suppose I want to create a Bitcoin-like hash-chain for other purposes than storing coins (for example: storing messages), ...
6
votes
1answer
162 views
Does merged mining require clients to download both blockchains?
Suppose I want to start an AltCoin, and set it up for merged mining with Bitcoin. Will it require the AltCoin end-users to also download the Bitcoin blockchain to verify the hashes embedded in the ...
3
votes
1answer
969 views
Can I regenerate blkindex.dat from blk0001.dat?
My copy of blkindex.dat became corrupted, but I still have the whole blk0001.dat file.
Is it possible to reconstruct the blkindex.dat file from the blk0001.dat file or do I have to delete both files ...
3
votes
2answers
392 views
Getting orphaned Blocks from the Blockchain
I'm very interested in doing some analysis of orphaned blocks, but to do so I'd have to have a good way of accessing them. Blockchain.info seems like a good place to start but I don't want to abuse ...
1
vote
1answer
304 views
Downloading of blockchain failed
I’ve been attempting to set up my own wallet, but am having difficulties. Last week I began installing the standard Bitcoin client.
When I first attempted I got to the process of downloading the ...
3
votes
3answers
3k views
How big is the blockchain on disk as of 5th July 2012? [closed]
I just started Bitcoin-qt for the first time, and it is syncing. How much space does the blockchain take up? I have my drive heavily partitioned, and my /home partition (linux mint) is only about ...
6
votes
2answers
374 views
What's the longest chain of orphan blocks? (How many confirmations have been necessary?)
I believe my two title questions are the same (are they?):
Heretofore, what is the longest chain of orphan blocks (of N blocks), such that if someone didn't wait for N+1 confirmations, they may have ...
2
votes
1answer
182 views
Are there proposed hardfork changes that couldn't be made if the market was filled with ASIC miners?
Suppose a year from now most of the hashrate is being produced by ASICs.
Bitcoin is not feature-complete yet. Out of the changes in the hardfork wishlist, would any of these changes be ...
1
vote
2answers
199 views
Is there a future-proof method of encoding messages in the blockchain?
There are several "reasonable" modifications to the Bitcoin protocol that would make some methods of encoding messages break (e.g. pruning).
Are any of the existing encoding methods future proof, in ...
9
votes
2answers
315 views
Have there been attempts at a Bitcoin-powered general purpose database?
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin-Powered_Database
As far I know, the Bitcoin blockchain is pretty much the only data structure that is both global and tamper-proof.
global - There is one global ...
4
votes
1answer
351 views
Can I run p2pool with a thin bitcoin client?
Everytime I restart my mining machine due to heat, I have to wait the following sequence to mine at p2pool:
bitcoind -> download blockchain & rescan -> p2pool -> download shares -> ...
3
votes
1answer
105 views
What order do transactions appear in a block? Is it up to the miner?
It seems to be random or up to the miner from what I can tell.
But to store blocks, one must keep the order of the transactions (in some position column, etc) because regenerating the block for later ...
5
votes
1answer
360 views
What does a double spend look like?
What does a double spend look like? Can anyone link to an example on blockchain.info?
Will invalid half of the double spend simply remain at 0-confirmations, or might it ever reach 1 or 2? Will the ...
3
votes
1answer
192 views
How can an earlier block have a later timestamp?
Block #180966 has a timestamp of 2012-05-20 23:02:53.
Block #180967 has a timestamp of 2012-05-20 23:02:13.
How has the software permitted a later block to have an earlier timestamp than its ...
2
votes
1answer
156 views
What will be required to increase the “soft” 500KB per-block data limit
We've alerady hit the point where a block has become 90% full, thanks to the popularity of SatoshiDICE.
The limit can be increased from the 500 KB max per-block in the software to 1 MB per-block ...
0
votes
2answers
247 views
Bitcoin client only has 1 connection?
I have had bitcoin for a little bit now. It has been going very smoothly. I have set up 3 accounts for various activities, privacy, and security reasons. I now can not get all of the block chain. ...
4
votes
2answers
262 views
What is the highest recorded difficulty in the main net?
What is the highest recorded difficulty in the main net and which blocks was it used for?
5
votes
3answers
5k views
How can one download the initial Blockchain data files securely?
I see several sources for binary downloads of the Bitcoin blockchain. Can any of these be used securely?
0
votes
2answers
210 views
Bitcoin client 0.4.1.1 stuck at block 176947
Bitcoin client stuck. Tried to rebuild whole blockchain, but it went up to that number and got stuck again.
Here's a screenshot: http://vvcap.net/db/2IR75OWyJj5AsUW7eo_i.htp
Any suggestions?
5
votes
1answer
756 views
Is there a way to change the wallet.dat location without changing the entire data directory?
I know that Bitcoin supports the -datadir command line option which specifies that the wallet.dat and blockchain should be stored in a custom location rather than %appdata%\roaming\bitcoin but is ...
7
votes
1answer
1k views
Has any illegal data been saved in the Block Chain?
Has any illegal data been saved in the Block Chain, such as an illegal number, or illegal prime?
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2answers
1k views
What is the longest blockchain fork that has been orphaned to date?
The orphaned blocks view from BlockChain.info shows a recent fork of the blockchain (starting with block 173,928) that went four blocks long before being orphaned.
Other than the controlled rewind ...
5
votes
3answers
390 views
Read only blockchain in bitcoind , patch ideas
This question is related to to the ( already nearing 2 GB and always increasing size ) blockchain download needed to use the bitcoin network, and is referencing this previous question :
Is ...
4
votes
1answer
194 views
How did these 3 tx make it into a block in the main chain?
http://blockexplorer.com/block/000000000000051b42fd09195c75da7a084df7593f47ad18139cdc9cd83a112e
The last three tx have a inputs with script_sig "1". This is invalid right?
According to protocol ...
6
votes
2answers
247 views
Bitcoin client behavior in event of a fork
What happens when a forked chain becomes longer than the main block chain?
Let's assume the forked chain that just became longer has no transactions in it, so it is as if every transaction in the ...
