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Date: Mon, 25 May 2015 20:15:39 +0200
Message-ID: <CANEZrP1p3FU_0fvGKTDWF95Zns5S6KciayViZWiP6OmcqrQDUA@mail.gmail.com>
From: Mike Hearn <mike@plan99.net>
To: Andrew <onelineproof@gmail.com>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=047d7b5d34fa4a431c0516ebff02
Cc: Bitcoin Dev <bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Scaling Bitcoin with Subchains
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Hi Andrew,

Your belief that Bitcoin has to be constrained by the belief that hardware
will never improve is extremist, but regardless, your concerns are easy to
assuage: there is no requirement that the block chain be stored on hard
disks. As you note yourself the block chain is used for building/auditing
the ledger. Random access to it is not required, if all you care about is
running a full node.

Luckily this makes it a great fit for tape backup. Technology that can
store 185 terabytes *per cartridge* has already been developed:

http://www.itworld.com/article/2693369/sony-develops-tape-tech-that-could-lead-to-185-tb-cartridges.html

As you could certainly share costs of a block chain archive with other
people, the cost would not be a major concern even today. And it's
virtually guaranteed that humanity will not hit a storage technology wall
in 2015.

If your computer is compromised then all bets are off. Validating the chain
on a compromised host is meaningless.

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<div dir=3D"ltr">Hi Andrew,<div class=3D"gmail_extra"><div class=3D"gmail_q=
uote"><div><br></div><div>Your belief that Bitcoin has to be constrained by=
 the belief that hardware will never improve is extremist, but regardless, =
your concerns are easy to assuage: there is no requirement that the block c=
hain be stored on hard disks. As you note yourself the block chain is used =
for building/auditing the ledger. Random access to it is not required, if a=
ll you care about is running a full node.</div><div><br></div><div>Luckily =
this makes it a great fit for tape backup. Technology that can store 185 te=
rabytes <i>per cartridge</i>=C2=A0has already been developed:</div><div><br=
></div><div><a href=3D"http://www.itworld.com/article/2693369/sony-develops=
-tape-tech-that-could-lead-to-185-tb-cartridges.html">http://www.itworld.co=
m/article/2693369/sony-develops-tape-tech-that-could-lead-to-185-tb-cartrid=
ges.html</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>As you could certainly share cost=
s of a block chain archive with other people, the cost would not be a major=
 concern even today. And it&#39;s virtually guaranteed that humanity will n=
ot hit a storage technology wall in 2015.</div><div><br></div><div>If your =
computer is compromised then all bets are off. Validating the chain on a co=
mpromised host is meaningless.</div></div></div></div>

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