Enourage pruning for first time desktop users #6460

1. 
   sime commented at 1:54 pm on July 19, 2015: contributor

   With a pruned wallet possible in master I believe we should encourage desktop/GUI users to use pruning. Decreasing the initial barrier to entry to using Bitcoin.

   On first load, the user will be presented with two options:

   1. Basic: 1.5G disk space
   2. Advanced: Full node. Minimum 50G disk space

   If the first option is chosen, set pruning to 550MB: prune=550.

   Since the user has the ability decide what type of node they wish to run, they should have the ability change their mind later. The Main tab in preferences will offer a chance to toggle the node type and size.

   The prune size UI should not permit sizes less than 550.

   PS I have a layered GIMP file if someone would like to refine the UI.

2. 
   JustinDrake commented at 3:41 pm on July 19, 2015: none

   +1 for pruning as the default for new users.
3. 
   2083236893 commented at 2:13 am on July 20, 2015: none

   “Quick start”? If anything prune takes slightly longer than not.

   If this change was to happen the dialogue would need to be expanded to explain to people that they are unable to import old wallet backups, rescan potentially faulty wallet histories, or import private keys using the (ill advised) functions in the console. Someone wanting to import their wallet from 2010 would be inclined to “quick start”, download the chain, and then find out that they need to download it a second time to load their wallet.

4. 
   sime commented at 6:23 am on July 20, 2015: contributor

   I haven’t benchmarked pruning, but it was my assumption that it would be quicker than syncing the whole blockchain.

   Possible then the Advanced button could be relabeled describe an avenue for restoring an old wallet?

5. 
   jonasschnelli commented at 6:35 am on July 20, 2015: contributor

   @sime: It is not quicker (maybe a little bit because you don’t relay blocks). It only reduces the required diskspace. I like the mockups but i’m unsure if we should encourage users to prune by default. At the moment – especially without relay option (#6148, which somehow requires better service-bit handling) – pruning node don’t really proactive participate in the distribution of the blockchain.
6. 
   luke-jr commented at 6:50 am on July 20, 2015: member

   If anything, the question should be “Contribute” or “Leech”. Definitely not Leech by default…
7. 
   sime commented at 7:53 am on July 20, 2015: contributor

   Running bitcoind on my small disk VPS for the first time and assumed the resource hogging was normal. But it settled a few hours ago and now I realise an empty pruned node talks a long time.

   I see now that pruning doesn’t introduce any notion of a quick start.

8. 
   jonasschnelli commented at 8:02 am on July 20, 2015: contributor

   Mind that pruning still downloads and verifies the whole blockchain. Pruning will only deleted blocks and undos above (=older) the given threshold (prune target in MB).
9. 
   laanwj commented at 9:26 am on July 21, 2015: member

   Not against exposing this in the UI, but I disagree it’s quite time to encourage it yet. The feature, especially in combination with the wallet, is experimental.

   I haven’t benchmarked pruning, but it was my assumption that it would be quicker than syncing the whole blockchain.

   No, it’s not any faster. It just conserves disk space, and upload bandwidth by not serving archived blocks.

10. laanwj added the label GUI on Jul 21, 2015
11. 
    sime commented at 9:39 am on July 21, 2015: contributor

    I’ll close this and make a new issue suggesting exposing the prune option.
12. 
    laanwj commented at 9:52 am on July 21, 2015: member

    You can also just edit this issue :)
13. 
    sime commented at 7:40 pm on July 21, 2015: contributor

    Replaced by #6461
14. sime closed this on Jul 21, 2015

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15. MarcoFalke locked this on Sep 8, 2021

Contributors
sime JustinDrake 2083236893 jonasschnelli luke-jr laanwj

Labels
GUI