because nodes aren't free cloud storage
Discussion
they pay for it though
1) They do pay a transaction fee.
2) Nodes can be pruned.
Seriously?
Payonf 40 cents tx fee to a *miner* to store crap on other people's computers *for free* makes this somehow acceptable to you?
I want to use money -> I must store other peoples JPGs for free in perpetuity.
Disappointing lack of critical thinking.
Node runners check miners’ work to make sure it meets the consensus rules of the software they voluntarily run, and then store it if it does. Mining is more expensive than node running, and is usually done for profit whereas node running is usually done to facilitate some other service (running an exchange or handling one’s own transactions).
That could include other people’s transactions, or other arbitrary data, which has existed back to the genesis block.
And some data is prunable. Ideally arbitrary data should be in prunable areas rather than unprunable areas that bloat the UTXO set.
The block size limit keeps overall bandwidth and storage requirements in check. A node runner can’t know ahead of time how full blocks will be, but they’re basically signing up for a maximum limit of 4MB every 10 mins.