Transaction

j"1LAnZuoQdcKCkpDBKQMCgziGMoPC4VQUckM!<div class="post">It's not the download so much as verifying all the signatures in all the blocks as it downloads that takes a long time.<br/><br/>How long is the initial block download typically taking?&nbsp; Does it slow down half way through or is about the same speed the whole way?<br/><br/>I've thought about ways to do a more cursory check of most of the chain up to the last few thousand blocks.&nbsp; It is possible, but it's a lot of work, and there are a lot of other higher priority things to work on.<br/><br/>Simplified Payment Verification is for lightweight client-only users who only do transactions and don't generate and don't participate in the node network.&nbsp; They wouldn't need to download blocks, just the hash chain, which is currently about 2MB and very quick to verify (less than a second to verify the whole chain).&nbsp; If the network becomes very large, like over 100,000 nodes, this is what we'll use to allow common users to do transactions without being full blown nodes.&nbsp; At that stage, most users should start running client-only software and only the specialist server farms keep running full network nodes, kind of like how the usenet network has consolidated.<br/><br/>SPV is not implemented yet, and won't be implemented until far in the future, but all the current implementation is designed around supporting it.<br/><br/>In the meantime, sites like <a href="http://vekja.net">vekja.net</a> and <a href="http://www.mybitcoin.com">www.mybitcoin.com</a> have been experimenting with account-based sites.&nbsp; You create an account on a website and hold your bitcoins on account there and transfer in and out.&nbsp; Creating an account on a website is a lot easier than installing and learning to use software, and a more familiar way of doing it for most people.&nbsp; The only disadvantage is that you have to trust the site, but that's fine for pocket change amounts for micropayments and misc expenses.&nbsp; It's an easy way to get started and if you get larger amounts then you can upgrade to the actual bitcoin software.</div> text/html