The case for dropping old blocks to keep Monero blockchain size under control and future proof - eviltoast

Monero is striving to be a currency that everyone can use, the growth of the blockchain is starting to hamper this goal IMO.

I think we should consider dropping blocks off of the chain tail once we reach block height of 4000000. This will give us 10 years of storage capacity, more than enough IMO.

Similar to how you have to exchange bills of cash once they get worn, you would simply churn your coins to get your outputs into younger blocks.

We are trying to be digital cash not an inheritance vault. If we had this feature from the start 99% of the community would agree with it.

Please consider this.🙂

*Edit: @4KB/tx * 100,000tx/day we are looking at ~400MB chain growth daily, this is not sustainable, let’s take care of this now before it becomes a big problem

**Edit: A possible solution could be that nodes would have the option to set chain retention duration. So when syncing a new node you can select that you would like to retain 5 years of chain data, with a minimum boundary enforced that retains sufficient security. This way the network decides in a fair way how much chain data is useful to store.

  • rattie_ok@monero.town
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    8 months ago

    Yes. Radical ideas are the best.

    Some might say that disk space is cheap, but what if Monero comes back to $1? Will you waste 500GB of disk space to keep your $50 safe?

    • tusker@monero.townOP
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      8 months ago

      The reality is 99% of people will not go out an buy an extra disk just to store chain data, they will just use a remote node or stop using Monero.

      I am very much into Monero and would be hesitant to attach extra disk to store the chain.