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I have downloaded Bitcoin Core and the blockchain has nearly filled my local storage. Can i move the wallet to a hard drive and then delete Core from my computer? I'm a newbie lol
Why does Bitcoin Core take up so much space?
Answers
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It's not Bitcoin Core that's taking up all the space, but the Bitcoin blockchain that Core needs to download, validate, and reference. This is because Bitcoin Core is what's called a full node. There is another type of wallet, called an SPV client, that does not require the full blockchain to operate, but relies on the trustworthiness of other peers in order to validate transactions. I get the feeling that an SPV client is probably what you're looking for.
Alternatively, if you really want to run Core, you can store the downloaded blockchain on a separate hard drive so long as that drive is mounted when you want to run core. You can learn more about that here: How do I relocate my bitcoin data in bitcoin-qt to save space?
5Or you can run Core with pruning enabled, meaning that it will delete data that it no longer needs. You keep all the benefits of a fully trustless system, but without the sacrifice in hard disk space. Future versions will further improve pruning as well as lower network bandwidth. – Jannes – 2016-06-02T17:58:54.283
How do i enable pruning? – M Mcgowan – 2016-06-02T22:06:44.340
1 These release notes tell you how to enable pruning using the bitcoin.conf file: https://bitcoin.org/en/release/v0.12.0 You'll have to search the page for 'pruning'.
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You can reduce disk-space usage of Bitcoin-Core by enabling pruning. Enabling pruning means you delete old, already verified blocks without reducing your security. Once old blocks are validated and used for building the UTXO set they are no longer useful for your node. The only purpose to keep them is for sending the blocks to other nodes in IBD (initial block download) and for reindex, txindex, etc.
You can run Bitcoin-Core <4Gb diskspace with:
./bitcoind --prune=550
Consider also passing in a dbcache=1000 (if you have more then 1.5GB free ram).
Thanks for the reply. Would you have a link that shows how to do this? – M Mcgowan – 2016-06-02T21:31:46.390
1 Enabled pruning with placing prune=550 in your bitcoin.conf. Read more at https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/a6a860796a44a2805a58391a009ba22752f64e32/doc/release-notes/release-notes-0.11.0.md#block-file-pruning
for latest bitcoind, -prune, not --prune – maxisacoder – 2018-06-13T09:01:14.897
2If you've already used this wallet to receive money (or even handed out an address), be very careful with deleting and moving files. It's possible, but follow the right steps (see one of the answers). – Jannes – 2016-06-02T18:00:32.760