in follow-up to thread 85203:
With a fully implemented Neutrino (BIP 157/8) in Bitcoin, would it enable one to operate a MINING Node without having to use/store the entire gigabytes of blockchain files?
thx
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How did you even get this impression. – Anonymous Mar 23 '19 at 4:09
No, it would not. A node that uses BIP 157/158 is not a full node. It is not downloading every single block and making sure that all blocks and transactions are valid, thus it is not a full node.
You can already run a full node without storing the entire blockchain. For a very long time now, Bitcoin Core has supported pruning where it discards old blocks after it has validated them. Pruned nodes are still full nodes as they still have downloaded and verified every block and transaction, they just don't store all of history. Pruned nodes can be used for mining.
answered Mar 22 '19 at 16:05
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thx. OK but then i am struggling to understand: what difference or advantage is there with neutrino, compared to current situation with SPV wallets, where it is still fast but not a full node? neutrino is also not a full node, so like a spv, or am i misunderstanding here sth`? – johnsmiththelird Mar 23 '19 at 14:45
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1Neutrino is a protocol for SPV wallets. It is more private than existing SPV protocols and less demanding on full nodes but requires more bandwidth. Like current SPV wallets, it does not need to sync the entire blockchain, and the data it does need to download (block filters) are relatively small and lightweight. – Andrew Chow♦ Mar 23 '19 at 16:41
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Neutrino is actually only the name of a specific light client that uses this protocol. The protocol is BIP157. – Pieter Wuille Mar 23 '19 at 21:18
