<p>You can, but it seems you'd get the worst of all worlds:</p>

<ul>
<li>It's slower than letting Bitcoin Core download and validate simultaneously (as you need to wait until you have the full torrent before validation can start).</li>
<li>It takes (temporarily) more space than just running a non-pruned node (as you're storing the torrent download + the Bitcoin Core data directory with a copy of the pruned blockchain).</li>
<li>You end up with a pruned chain rather than a full chain.</li>
</ul>

<p>If all you want is a pruned chain, run Bitcoin Core in pruned mode, and it will download, verify, and prune all simultaneously - never using more than a few GB of storage, and still faster than first using a torrent download.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-11T21:17:37.180Z
2019-07-11T21:17:37.180Z
Pieter Wuille
<p>Prune can happen but the client must still verify the chain from start to finish.  Most devices are not limited by the download speed of the chain, it is usually to do with the verification of the transactions already created.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-11T00:44:26.370Z
No, Bitcoin Core prunes old blocks on the fly while new blocks are being downloaded and verified.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-11T19:26:14.257Z
My bad, il correct my answer.
MaxSan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-10T18:37:47.147Z
2019-07-11T19:27:17.633Z
2019-07-11T19:27:17.633Z
MaxSan
<p>I want to get started as quick as possible and it seems torrenting is the fastest way, but I'm curious if I can then prune?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-10T18:44:31.020Z
Afaiu, Bitcoin-core is optimized to validate the chain *as it downloads*. It will be slower to torrent the files.
chytrik
<bitcoin-core>
If you download the bitcoin blockchain via a torrent, can you then prune it?
Shamoon
# If you download the bitcoin blockchain via a torrent, can you then prune it?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-07-10)

I want to get started as quick as possible and it seems torrenting is the fastest way, but I'm curious if I can then prune?

**Tags:** bitcoin-core

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Afaiu, Bitcoin-core is optimized to validate the chain *as it downloads*. It will be slower to torrent the files.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-07-11. Score: 4

You can, but it seems you'd get the worst of all worlds:

* It's slower than letting Bitcoin Core download and validate simultaneously (as you need to wait until you have the full torrent before validation can start).
* It takes (temporarily) more space than just running a non-pruned node (as you're storing the torrent download + the Bitcoin Core data directory with a copy of the pruned blockchain).
* You end up with a pruned chain rather than a full chain.

If all you want is a pruned chain, run Bitcoin Core in pruned mode, and it will download, verify, and prune all simultaneously - never using more than a few GB of storage, and still faster than first using a torrent download.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2019-07-10. Score: 0

Prune can happen but the client must still verify the chain from start to finish. Most devices are not limited by the download speed of the chain, it is usually to do with the verification of the transactions already created.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: No, Bitcoin Core prunes old blocks on the fly while new blocks are being downloaded and verified.  
> **username_3**: My bad, il correct my answer.  

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