He can use pruning to only store the last X MB of the blockchain. It will store the UTXO set though, which is a couple of GBs. In total, a pruned node with pruning set to 1000 MB ends up using 4.5 GB currently, but it varies slightly due to the # of UTXOs in existence.
On Thu, May 10, 2018 at 9:56 AM, Segue via bitcoin-dev <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote: > On 3/17/18, someone posted on the Lightning-dev list, "Can I try Lightning > without running a fully-fledged bitcoin block chain? (Yubin Ruan)." The > inquirer was asking because he didn't have much space to store the entire > blockchain on his laptop. > > I replied: > > "Developers, > > On THIS note and slightly off-topic but relevant, why can't chunks of > blockchain peel off the backend periodically and be archived, say on minimum > of 150 computers across 7 continents? > > It seems crazy to continue adding on to an increasingly long chain to > infinity if the old chapters (i.e. more than, say, 2 years old) could be > stored in an evenly distributed manner across the planet. The same 150 > computers would not need to store every chapter either, just the index would > need to be widely distributed in order to reconnect with a chapter if > needed. Then maybe it is no longer a limitation in the future for people > like Yubin. " > > It was suggested by a couple of lightning developers that I post this idea > on the bitcoin-dev list. So, here I post :). > > Segue > > > > > _______________________________________________ > bitcoin-dev mailing list > bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org > https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev _______________________________________________ bitcoin-dev mailing list bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
