Bitcoin Wallet (Qt) and Litecoin Wallet (Qt) software synchronising ..

I downloaded and installed both sets of software and saw that Bitcoin Wallet was something like "500 weeks behind" and LiteCoin Wallet was like "279 weeks behind" ...

At first it appeared to download the blockchain info fairly rapidly with both clients...

Now - after running for nearly 3 days, LiteCoin Wallet is stuck on "18 hours behind" for the past 12 hours and BitCoin Wallet is now only at 15 Weeks behind...
At this rate it could still take days before they are synced!??

What are your experiences?

 

I got the Bitcoin wallet, but as I understand (from another thread here): the magical "8 GB blockchain file" has to be downloaded as well.

Which "blockchain file" do we have to download? I've found several programs with that name, but they seem to be something else...

Suppose I got the file, how do I "synchronize" with the Bitcoin Wallet?

Can't understand why the wallet isn't enough to get your Bitcoins in and out. Ah well, I'm learning!

My wallets are also "behind" and so am I with these cryptos...

 

Both wallet apps download the relevant block chains from the network, via peer to peer transfer, automatically. They then maintain synchronization each time you load them up. The btc block chain has swelled from 8gb to 13gb in just this last few weeks of interest. I noticed the closet to full sync, the longer it took to load each 'day' as transactions have only been intensifying with all this market activity.

 

Yes, I just read about the swelling, a blog was mentioning the 13 GB.

So do we need to download that 13 GB file to make out wallets work?

And where from, exactly? To avoid any confusion. Been searching all around and all I found were jibberish-named files...

 

No mate, your wallet will do all the downloading, you don't need to do anything except turn your PC on, Load up Bitcoin Wallet QT and make sure you can see the green 'sync' bar at the bottom of the app window. Then wait patiently. Be real careful downloading or executing anything other than a BTC network 'recognized' wallet. Any file called 'block chain' could easily be the perfect dodgy trojan.

 

OK, so the Litecoin QT and the Bitcoin Wallet programs (all from the official sites) should automatically download/update and synch, right?

My Litecoin wallet seems fine right now. Prolly downloaded all it needed.

Bitcoin Wallet is "150 days behind". I guess this is the downloading process.

 

Sounds like your on the right track.

The idea you have to have a wallet to possess or trade BTC/LTC is a falsehood. I still maintain you are better off having these programs on you PC for when the need arrives. And watching how these programs install & sync can be instrumental in getting your head around how BTC is designed to work.

I personally am quite infuriated at myself for sitting on the sidelines, while some of the greatest gains where made, waiting for my wallets to sync. I could of immediately started buying my BTC from coinjar.com or any other dealer. then I could transferred that coin directly from my dealers wallet to my btc-e.com wallet account. Then commenced to trade my coin to leverage my btc & ltc position (More fun than an epic 8 hour session playing multi player Rush in Battlefield 3 & about 1000x more dangerous to you marriage.)

 

Funny how yours gives the number of days behind??

Mine currently says "12 weeks behind" ... which is 84 days, so strange how mine is more up to date, yet reports backlog in weeks whereas your is in days?

we must have different versions of the software then? mine is Qt version 4.8.3

 

I've had a bad experience with Bitcoin-QT (versions 1.8.1 and 1.8.5) on my Mac. But it is not only Macs.
There are tons of blog threads about them on the net. Block chains not loading/wallets continuously crashing.
I now use an Electrum wallet. I won't touch Bitcoin-QT wallets again. Not until the bugs are long sorted out.

 

aaah... btc-e.com - the infamous exchange that cannot accept fiat into accounts!!??

Do tell - have you been able to transfer any fiat to your account in order to purchase crypto or are you only transferring crypto to your wallet/account there and hoping to swap into other crypto there??

I'm intrigued by this whole system where it appears so difficult to load/unload account with fiat??
WHY????

To my way of thinking there should be no hassles at all with transferring fiat into- or out of a crypto exchange... the barriers that exist ito having to be "identified" etc etc goes totally against the spirit of these crypto currencies and only plays the game of the banksters and government.

 

It's possible to take a short cut in syncing your wallets by manually bootstrapping into the network. The wallets have their own internal download mechanism to obtain the blockchain file via other BTC/LTC peers, but you can download that blockchain separately using a more efficient source like BitTorrent.

Download blockchain file via torrent > copy blockchain file to your wallet > force wallet to verify "mystery blockchain file" > Whoa! Blockchain data is all there > wallet in sync and ready to use.

There will be a time difference between when the snapshot of the blockchain file you download was created and where the network is right now but it might only be a few days or a week vs. downloading the entire history of the network over a shitty, unoptimized wallet program.

You should be able to cut your download and sync time from days to hours.

(All this stuff dates back to the post-Napster days when the first generation of decentralized P2P networks started to emerge. Fun times.)

 

any bittorrent links?
also, how would you know that whatever you're dowloading doesn't have malware in it?

 

these versions you mention sound a tad old!??

I'm asssuming mine (4.8.3) is the latest version

 

Or you could just wait a few days..

 

I think you might be confusing the barriers existing with getting money onto an exchange in another country, so you can buy & trade crypto; Versus sending crypto that you've bought 'locally' like from coinjar, onto an exchange via the very mechanism of transfer, that makes crypto so attractive in the first place. you can trade between the different crypto currencies. I initially only put my btc onto btc-e.com to trade into ltc, but found out that day trading, is heaps of terrifying fun, and leverages up my btc position. btc-e.com don't charge to deposit btc onto the exchange but charge 0.001 btc when you withdraw your btc back, say to a local dealer to cash out, or to a wallet for safe keeping.

 

You can probably just Google "blockchain torrent" and find an up-to-date one.

A particular version number of a blockchain file will be identical to the same version created/uploaded by someone else. Each of those files will have the same hash (basically, an encoded summary of every 1 and 0 in the file) which you can use to make sure the file you have is the same as everyone else's file.

File hashes are what makes it possible to download small pieces of one file from lots of other people simultaneously. It's what makes BitTorrent and other file sharing apps work.

The BitCoin wallet software uses it too, but it's trying to download and verify the hash at the same time. It's generally more efficient to do one, then the other.

 

+1
excellent tidbit of information there mate!!
wish more people would share such gems

 

Typically exchanges will make $$$ from the following sources:

1) Deposit fees
2) Trading fees
3) Withdrawal fees

The fees can be in $$ or BTC, etc. You probably should confirm these before signing up to any exchange so you know what you're getting into.

 

I think the exchange does better than I most the time with my rushed panic trades using a browser.

 

Yes - it is troubling to me when exchanges scrape off bitcoins when depositing bitcoins into your wallet/account with them and/or when you move your bitcoins out of your exchange account back down to your own wallet or to another exchange..
to me that goes totally against the spirit of crypto!
I can understand a TRADE charge ... but NOT for simply uploading or downloading YOUR OWN bitcoins to/from your account on their exchange... it's just plain wrong in my opinion.

thanks to Emanance we now have confirmation that BTC-e do not charge for depositing bitcoins, but they DO charge for withdrawing bitcoins... which is a real pity, as it means one must keep your bitcoins on the exchange (instead of safe in your own wallet) and thereby be prone to counterparty risk as in when like your bitcoins simply disappear out of your account or you get locked out of your account etc... it's just wrong!
However a big plus to BTC-e for not charging fees for swaps between the cryptos!