The Chia blockchain is extremely slow to sync via the client, unfortunately. It requires tons of unnecessary processing power to sync as it verifies each transaction. On slow hardware, it currently takes days to sync.
What does the community think about a trusted entity (like a pool) creating and distributing a torrent copy of the blockchain every ~2 weeks for newcomers/people changing machines to download?
The potential uncertainty about the security risk is a factor to consider, but is ultimately a factor that has been deemed low-risk by other blockchains; downloading copies of Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Siacoin, etc. blockchains via torrent is extremely standard. The only two attacks possible would be:
creating fake inputs to a wallet
making it appear as though transactions to a wallet never happened
Assuming the person downloading the blockchain is starting a new wallet, there is literally no attack vector. The limitations of this attack vector (and nearly non-existent gains from it) make it very unappealing.
What are people’s thoughts? Would this be a helpful service to the community to make it easier and faster to enter into the ecosystem?
I would think that everyone would LOVE to have that service, exactly for the reasons you have outlined.
Also, with provisions that were stated in that original thread, I don’t think that there is a problem (even potential) with the db being poisoned.
However, for whatever reasons, the person behind that service somehow didn’t manage to get blessing / help from any respected entity (unfortunately). Maybe someone who has some contacts at chia or a well know pool could step in, and help.
From my side, I would consider the current syncing basically broken, as such this service is just a temporary solution while we are waiting to have chia get its act together. As such, I really fail to see why people are bashing on that service and at the same time being quiet about the root of this problem.
I’m not smart enough to have an informed opinion on this. However if Bram: a dude who understands BT and Chia completely… doesn’t think it’s a good idea… then that’s enough for me. Don’t need to overthink it.
Chia is green security: farming is just a means to an end. The ability for nodes to determine if their blockchain info is correct all the way back to the genesis block, themselves, is a feature. Outsourcing the security of your node to save some startup time… for a system that will be running for years… is a dumb idea.
Maybe you can read the original thread, as it was (clearly) explained what can be done.
Chia would provide db to that third party, while keeping the checksum. This way, that third party would just host what Chia provided them with, and people would verify that db against the checksum on Chia’s side.
If you don’t understand what checksum does, here is a good link to Wikipedia - Checksum - Wikipedia. Also, maybe you have already noticed, Chia is already using checksum for verification of the installation package.
After watching this thread, and threads like it, Elysium Pool has finally released a snapshot distribution of the Chia blockchain via torrent for easy downloading. With this service, users can sync up their new Chia clients in minutes instead of hours/days.