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The SourceForge project page for Bitcoin provides a blockchain download at http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain/ but this file is old/dated.
How and where can I download an up to date copy of the Bitcoin block chain?
Is there a newer Bitcoin blockchain download available?
Answers
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Since v0.10, the parallel block download in Bitcoin Core is often comparable in speed to torrent downloading, does not require temporary double storage, and validates while downloading instead of sequentially.
Original answer:
Please use the bootstrap.dat torrent download. It is more frequently updated and much safer to use.
You can find the .torrent download at http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain/bootstrap.dat.torrent/download
1Could you elaborate on why it's safer? – Nick ODell – 2013-06-24T23:41:16.590
2Because it verifies the blocks on import, instead of trusting someone to give you a pre-validated pre-indexed database. – Pieter Wuille – 2013-06-25T00:11:34.210
1Ah, I did not realize that the .zip files contained the raw blk*.dat files. Thanks. – Nick ODell – 2013-06-25T00:16:22.740
My service provider blocks torrent downloads. So this is not a good solution for me. Any other sites? – Sydwell – 2013-06-29T06:56:18.310
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You can download the complete blockchain at https://flo.sh/bitcoin-qt-bootstrap-dat/
If you follow the steps described the initial startup of Bitcoin-Qt should work significally faster :)
It's not meaningfully faster post v0.10. – Nick ODell – 2015-08-07T01:44:14.657
Probably slower actually, given the double handling of the block data. – Anonymous – 2015-08-07T18:00:26.093
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http://en.blockchaindownload.nl/ is a good way to download the full blockchains of bitcoin and litecoin. The site is new so i expect more improvements in the future. They offer free torrent downloads uploaded 24/7 by 3 servers so bandwith is pretty good and the last upload at the time of writing this was a nicely compressed rar file!
1Please don't suggest solutions that require users to trust the operator of the site's honesty and security practices. If an incorrect record is added to the database download they offer, they may accept transactions out of nothing in an undetectable way. – Pieter Wuille – 2015-10-13T15:48:18.570
Well im the owner :P. The node is running without editing or something. Follow this linkhttps://bitnodes.21.co/nodes/81.169.224.162-8333/ to see the stats of the node providing the chain. Its an automated script that runs (normally) every friday and tuesday. The script contains the following steps: shut down node, use winrar to pack the chain, start node again,notifi the Ukrain webseed, make temp-torrent file, upload to filemail, make def torrent file.
If other things may be unclear, feel free to send a email to the mail noted on the website. – rollo1996 – 2016-06-28T21:31:53.153
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Here you go I have recently uploaded the bitcoin blockchain to sourceforge.
Blockchain & Chainstate Date: 29th October 2013
Download Link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoinblockchain/files/29-10-2013/ Download Size: 9GB (Compressed) - 13GB (Decompressed)
What do you think about using btsync to keep a up to date bootstrap.dat file http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/sync.html
Thank you. When download completes, can I rsync it with my ~/.bitcoin directory or is it like this sourceforge link which is rather tricky to decipher http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/blockchain/
In 2013, the blockchain size was 13 GB. In December 2018, it is 195 GB. This answer is totally outdated. Downloading only 6.5% of it won't help today. – MCCCS – 2018-12-15T07:49:54.643
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You can "Download the latest snapshot from our high-speed CDN" on http://bitcoin.network but it's not free. It seems to be always up-to-date.
I found this http://eu2.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/ but it isn't dated (silly)
– Colonel Panic – 2013-09-28T19:53:01.3101@ColonelPanic that link is broken – puk – 2013-12-05T06:45:29.157