So a wallet downloads all blocks of the entire history?
Discussion
Yes. They have to catch up from the last block that was synced. That's one of the major complaints about Monero is the sync times.
If you use the same keys on a new wallet you have to sync all the way back from wallet creation date.
Last block synced is one of the few pieces of data that nodes can see.
I think it's also what it takes for Silent Payment, your wallet need to scan all the blocks since last sync to recover its balance.
Kind of a pain in the ass in term of UX no ? Never used a monero wallet so can't relate if it's a real problem or not in term of UX.
I mean in that sense, it's a bit like a self custodfial LN wallet having to sync the graph before paying, and I can relate that it can be painful if you need to pay right away the merchant.
I don't know why the reason is, but Monero scanning is very very fast in comparison. So far, any Silent Payment integration I've tried is impractically and painfully slow. I've given up using it for now. Maybe it will improve down the road?
Yea, its a UX trade-off for sure, especially vs other cryptocurrency, but a relatively simple one because all you have to do is open your wallet and wait. Nothing else. And if you use it somewhat regularly it's pretty damn quick to catch up. I think Cake Wallet is going to release periodic background syncing soon which should improve it UX once more wallets adopt this.