Does anyone know of research along the lines of the following assumptions? On an average day in bitcoin, I assume most of the utxos consumed are relatively recent, and most of the utxos created are soon consumed. How much memory do you need to store 100% of them? 90%? 80%? 70%?
Discussion
Its quite large, and has to be held in ram for a full node. The utxo set is a much more pressing concern than total size of the blockchain. The dramatic increase in utxo set is why all nodes on old raspberry pis crapped out.
But the exact number... I can't look up right now. Look around on your node.
I came up with a protocol that I think allows a node to prune its utxo set and still count as a fully validating node. So I no longer think it's true that it has to be held in ram -- I don't think it needs to be held at all, though I think the more of the utxo set you "keep around," the faster IBD would be. https://gist.github.com/supertestnet/6aa3dbeb7cb749741c18ed9335a23a81