<p>If you're going to trust someone to give you a pre-indexed version of the blockchain, you are trusting them about the entire history of transactions. They can claim whatever they want (within certain bounds), and your client will accept it. If there is a mistake in the data (either deliberately or accidentally), it will result in the client rejecting the future valid chain at some point, potentially landing you in a side chain (which may be under control of the attacker). If many people would use the same source for their pre-indexed files, they would all end up on the same side chain, living in their own happy world. Both chains (the real one, and the side one) would allow every existing output to be spent once; if this happens on a large scale, it is a disaster for Bitcoin.</p>

<p>Of course, the long waiting times are a real problem (the upcoming 0.8 version should be significantly faster, though) but if you can't spend the resources and time to maintain a fully validating node (like the reference client implements), consider using a lightweight client like Multibit. It does not offer the same security, but it is better than trusting a centralized instance to tell you history.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-14T12:30:49.927Z
An `Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5850  @ 2.16GHz` takes 2 days to process.
Providing a reliable indexed bootstrap is simple: just checksum the whole package.
Eduardo
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-30T03:58:56.633Z
Then you're still trusting the person who computed the checksum.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-01-30T13:44:57.410Z
2013-01-30T13:44:57.410Z
Pieter Wuille
<p>I tried bootstrapping bitcoind, but it's slowly downloading and downloading. I tried putting <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/802">these files</a> first, but it is still downloading something a bit, stays 100% CPU, iowaits, fills up the thawing free gigabytes and is not going to finish soon.</p>

<p>Is there somewhere ready-to-use <code>$HOME/.bitcoin</code> directory available for download to skip any lengthy initial phase?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-13T16:53:45.750Z
Is it possible you are using an encrypted filesystem?

Bitcoin is i/o heavy and bitcoin running on an encrypted filesystem is really slow.
Stephen Gornick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-13T18:21:43.967Z
With bitcoin v0.7 you can have it create blk000n.dat and regenerate the blkindex.dat from another blk data file: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/4145/153
Stephen Gornick
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-13T18:22:31.483Z
But I'm unaware of any download that already includes all (currently three) blk*.dat files.
Stephen Gornick
<bitcoind><synchronization>
Are there ready-to-use indexed bitcoind data files available somewhere?
Vi0
# Are there ready-to-use indexed bitcoind data files available somewhere?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-08-13)

I tried bootstrapping bitcoind, but it's slowly downloading and downloading. I tried putting [these files](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/802) first, but it is still downloading something a bit, stays 100% CPU, iowaits, fills up the thawing free gigabytes and is not going to finish soon.

Is there somewhere ready-to-use `$HOME/.bitcoin` directory available for download to skip any lengthy initial phase?

**Tags:** bitcoind, synchronization

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Is it possible you are using an encrypted filesystem?  Bitcoin is i/o heavy and bitcoin running on an encrypted filesystem is really slow.  
> **username_1**: With bitcoin v0.7 you can have it create blk000n.dat and regenerate the blkindex.dat from another blk data file: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/4145/153  
> **username_1**: But I'm unaware of any download that already includes all (currently three) blk*.dat files.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2013-01-30. Score: 1

If you're going to trust someone to give you a pre-indexed version of the blockchain, you are trusting them about the entire history of transactions. They can claim whatever they want (within certain bounds), and your client will accept it. If there is a mistake in the data (either deliberately or accidentally), it will result in the client rejecting the future valid chain at some point, potentially landing you in a side chain (which may be under control of the attacker). If many people would use the same source for their pre-indexed files, they would all end up on the same side chain, living in their own happy world. Both chains (the real one, and the side one) would allow every existing output to be spent once; if this happens on a large scale, it is a disaster for Bitcoin.

Of course, the long waiting times are a real problem (the upcoming 0.8 version should be significantly faster, though) but if you can't spend the resources and time to maintain a fully validating node (like the reference client implements), consider using a lightweight client like Multibit. It does not offer the same security, but it is better than trusting a centralized instance to tell you history.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: An `Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5850  @ 2.16GHz` takes 2 days to process. Providing a reliable indexed bootstrap is simple: just checksum the whole package.  
> **username_2**: Then you're still trusting the person who computed the checksum.  

---

