<p>Your code stores only the results of the <code>getblock</code> call. This returns the block headers and the tx hashes of the block, but <a href="https://chainquery.com/bitcoin-api/getblock" rel="nofollow">NOT the actual tx's themselves</a>. </p>

<p>Each transaction hash is only 8 bytes, an actual transaction is roughly 500 bytes, so you're missing about 500 bytes per tx in each block. </p>

<p>There have been <a href="https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions-total" rel="nofollow">about 116 million transactions</a> in the history of bitcoin, so 500 * 116 million ~ 60 billion bytes or about 60 GB that you're missing.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-13T02:34:21.757Z
2016-03-13T02:34:21.757Z
Jimmy Song
<p>I am running full bitcoin node locally. Currently, the size of the blockchain is around 70 GB.
<a href="https://blockchain.info/charts/blocks-size?timespan=all" rel="nofollow">Blockchain size</a></p>

<p>Further, I stored all the blocks in a text file in json format. It turned out that the size of this text file is around 10 GB. I am wondering what is the rest of the 60 GB used for?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-11T18:38:30.957Z
Can guarantee you that the JSON files do not contain all the information. How did you create those JSON files?
Jannes
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-12T15:16:28.897Z
please see [link]https://github.com/tariq786/datafying_bitcoin/blob/master/batch_load_blocks_rpc.py . This is how i generate blocks in json format. Essentially using JSON RPC with bitcoind
user2065276
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-12T19:28:04.200Z
I only glanced at the code for that JSON extractor tool, but I'm going to bet that it doesn't include any signature information. Not sure what else will be missing.
Jannes
<bitcoind><blockchain><blockchain.info>
blockchain size issue
user2065276
# blockchain size issue

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-03-11)

I am running full bitcoin node locally. Currently, the size of the blockchain is around 70 GB.
[Blockchain size](https://blockchain.info/charts/blocks-size?timespan=all)

Further, I stored all the blocks in a text file in json format. It turned out that the size of this text file is around 10 GB. I am wondering what is the rest of the 60 GB used for?

**Tags:** bitcoind, blockchain, blockchain.info

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Can guarantee you that the JSON files do not contain all the information. How did you create those JSON files?  
> **username_0**: please see [link]https://github.com/tariq786/datafying_bitcoin/blob/master/batch_load_blocks_rpc.py . This is how i generate blocks in json format. Essentially using JSON RPC with bitcoind  
> **username_1**: I only glanced at the code for that JSON extractor tool, but I'm going to bet that it doesn't include any signature information. Not sure what else will be missing.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2016-03-13. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Your code stores only the results of the `getblock` call. This returns the block headers and the tx hashes of the block, but [NOT the actual tx's themselves](https://chainquery.com/bitcoin-api/getblock).

Each transaction hash is only 8 bytes, an actual transaction is roughly 500 bytes, so you're missing about 500 bytes per tx in each block.

There have been [about 116 million transactions](https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions-total) in the history of bitcoin, so 500 \* 116 million ~ 60 billion bytes or about 60 GB that you're missing.


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