Is there a way to limit the size of blockchain. Eg can it be capped at 5Gb? Can past transactions be shrunk further? 🤔
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Now the answer you've been waiting for soo long 😄
In the Bitcoin blockchain, it’s not possible to set a hard limit on size (like capping it at 5GB) because of its decentralized and immutable nature. However, there are ways to manage and reduce the storage.
**Pruning**
Bitcoin Core offers a pruning mode where it deletes old block data, keeping only the most recent blocks required for current operations. This can reduce storage significantly, but a pruned node won’t be able to serve the full history to other nodes.
pruned node is a lighter, storage-efficient option suitable if you don’t need to provide the full blockchain history to others. For most individual users or smaller setups, pruning is often a practical solution.
**Lightweight Clients (SPV)**
Instead of running a full node, you can use a Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) client like [electrum](https://electrum.org). SPV nodes don’t store the full blockchain, just block headers, which reduces the storage requirement dramatically, but they rely on full nodes for validation.