Best method of speeding up Monero downloading / syncing of the xmr blockchain?

Question

My node is 8000 blocks behind, and its taking quite a while to sync. Is there a faster way to sync / download the Monero blockchain?

Answer 1

You can download the blockchain and then import it using the instructions here:

How to synchronize the GUI wallet using the blockchain bootstrap

Answer 2

I've got same problem setting up my local Monero node. I've started downloading it, but as size increase I could not afford to host it on my laptop. So I choose to host it on a VPS, a small one so it wouldn't be expensive.

On Linode the VPS main disk it's a SSD, but could't be expanded for more space, so I have to put the blockchain into a separate disk and unfortunately on Linode they are very slow.

I've setup first a bigger VPS with 160 SSD, then download the cli and setup a configuration:

# Data directory (blockchain db and indices)
data-dir=/home/monero_wallet/data

# Log file
log-file=/home/monero_wallet/data/bitmonero.log
log-level=0

# Deatached
# detach=1
# non-interactive=1

# Mining
start-mining=
bg-mining-enable=1
bg-mining-ignore-battery=1
bg-mining-miner-target=35

# P2P full node
p2p-bind-ip=0.0.0.0            # Bind to all interfaces (the default)
p2p-bind-port=18080            # Bind to default port

# RPC open node
rpc-bind-ip=0.0.0.0            # Bind to all interfaces
rpc-bind-port=18081            # Bind on default port
confirm-external-bind=1        # Open node (confirm)
restricted-rpc=1               # Prevent unsafe RPC calls
rpc-login=user:pass            # RPC login
no-igd=1                       # Disable UPnP port mapping

# Slow but reliable db writes
db-sync-mode=safe

# Emergency checkpoints set by MoneroPulse operators will be enforced to workaround potential consensus bugs
# Check https://monerodocs.org/infrastructure/monero-pulse/ for explanation and trade-offs
enforce-dns-checkpointing=1

out-peers=64              # This will enable much faster sync and tx awareness; the default 8 is suboptimal nowadays
in-peers=1024             # The default is unlimited; we prefer to put a cap on this

limit-rate-up=1048576     # 1048576 kB/s == 1GB/s; a raise from default 2048 kB/s; contribute more to p2p network
limit-rate-down=1048576   # 1048576 kB/s == 1GB/s; a raise from default 8192 kB/s; allow for faster initial sync

Then download the raw chain, import it without verification.

$ ./monero-blockchain-import --log-level=1 --input-file ./data/blockchain.raw --data-dir ./data --dangerous-unverified-import=1 --resume=1

After this step was completed I've started the monerod node and sync-up with rest of the network.

$ ./monerod --config-file=/home/monero_wallet/data/bitmonero.conf --detach

When everything was done, I've created a disk at 100GB and moved all files there. Then started again a monero node.

$ mv /home/monero_wallet /mnt/monero_wallet/wallet -v

And downgraded my VPS to a cheaper one. I did this because I wanted to minimize the cost which are around 15$. But you can just setup a VPS and start the node.

The whole thing took almost a day, it would be faster to just use an open node, but wouldn't be of help if you want to use Monero for long term.

Answer 3

You can do the following to speed it up:

./monerod --block-sync-size 1

Answer 4

Using a Monero client and syncing the blockchain via peer-to-peer will probably be a lot faster than trying to download blockchain.raw.