Downloading the whole blockchain to get started the only way?

So forgive me if this is a noob type thing to say, but is downloading the whole blockchain of 1Gb really required for someone to get started with Reddcoin (or any other crypto-currency)? Or are there better options?

I mean I think I understand the principal of blockchain based digital currencies well enough - i.e. multiple wallets verifying transactions etc in order to guarantee integrity of the currency, avoid double-spends etc. But seriously, having to download the whole blockchain of the last three years sucks.

It would seem like a better strategy to me, to continue with the individual wallet idea, but store the individual copy of the blockchain associated with a user’s wallet in the cloud somewhere and just reference it using smaller calls from the end user’s device back to the cloud, then out to the wider ecosystem to avoid the download and storage hit, and initial setup delay.

This would make a crypto currency like Reddcoin much more accessible to the average internet-enabled tween or social bunny wouldn’t it? I mean, they’re not going to wait around for an hour to get setup like us geeks might… or have I totally missed the bus and there are already good answers to this or future strategies I’m just not enlightened on yet?

Thanks in advance.

Currently, yes. Using your idea, of cloud storage would centralize the whole blockchain and would only allow that one user to stake. There is talk of an electrum wallet (basically a lite version) that doesn’t need to download the blockchain, but that is still in the works.

Just remember, the cloud is just someone else’s computer…

Thanks for the reply, I’ll check out the Electrum wallet concept.

So personally, I’m fine with it being stored in the cloud, it’s heavily encrypted right? And I mean my fiat currency that I see when I log into my bank account at present is stored on someone else’s computer (the bank’s), same thing really? I’m trusting them to do the right thing. Mainframes’ probably have less actual encryption of my bits than a crypto-currency would.

And as a provider of a crypto-currency, couldn’t it be made further robust by randomly scattering user’s copies of the blockchain on multiple different clouds around the globe (i.e User 1001 to AWS, User 1002 to Azure) to again, reduce likelihood of interference by one cloud provider being able to compromise the chain? Or am I simplifying too far there?

Are there any other currencies currently using the method I’ve specified above that anyone is aware of?

Thanks again.

Also, I’m not sure if I made myself clear or you misunderstood my point about Cloud storage of the blockchain.

I’m not suggesting ‘one’ central copy of the blockchain. I’m suggesting a copy of the blockchain in the cloud ‘per Reddcoin user’, i.e. simply instead of it being on my local desktop’s hard drive, it’s stored in the cloud.

This to me seems like simple way to speed up the setup process (hiding all the setup of the cloud storage programatically of course when the user sets up the Reddcoin wallet), so that your average non-tech savy user can get up and running with Reddcoin in seconds. As opposed to the hour it’s taken me.

Hi! Your question and worries are totally understandable… My answer is that if you want convenience you stay where you are and you keep using fiat, credit cards (and windows :P)
To have some kind of freedom you need to lose convenience.
When the internet came out people needed to go to university to learn how to use a browser… Now my grandma has a tablet and uses skype…
Internet is evolving every day and in a few years I guess blockchains will be few seconds to download and almost no space on your future storage device (or crystal)

Thanks Makishart (I think…)

I’m not quite sure how those intelligent questions can be considered ‘worries’, but anyway.

And I think you’ve missed my point as well.

I am not an average user looking for convenience. But that is what the average users will expect. And if I was a developer working on Reddcoin I would want to make it as easy to consume as possible, because that is how you get mass market adoption. Downloadong a 1GB blockchain and copying bootstraps is a bad strategy if you want a successful scalable coin.

But you are right about Skype, and this is my point - Skype is simple, IRC in the early days of the Internet was not - Not simple enough for Grandma anyway.

Again, I’d be keen to hear of any other currencies doing this currently or definitive plans to for Reddcoin.

About ‘worries’ I am sorry, I couldn’t find the proper word I didn’t mean it this way.
About the rest I have gotten your point and I didn’t meant about your convenience in personal but I was talking for anybody.
I know this ‘convenience’ for the typical user will come in crypto. Anyways the first reaction for people who learn about bitcoin is “good but who is controlling it?”, “is it legal?” etc…
So what I believe is that centralized cryptos will arrived soon and will be adopted by the masses… The banks and governments just waiting for the right moment to hit…
All this leads to my point that freedom needs sacrifices and also needs to stop trusting what makes you a slave…