<p>I assume with &quot;<em>blockchain/node size</em>&quot; you mean the growing size of the immutable ledger database. The current growth rate is pretty linear. In the last 100 days it grew from 7 up to 10.5 GB</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/VFpOw.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/VFpOw.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>So we see a <strong>growth rate of about 1 GB per month</strong>, which would result in a 12 GB per year.</p>
<p>Keep in mind the ledger DB folder now contains every UTXO action since Nov-2017, not just since Shelley-Mainnet launch in Aug-2020.</p>
<p>New capabilities like <a href="https://docs.cardano.org/projects/cardano-serialization-lib/en/latest/getting-started/metadata.html" rel="noreferrer">Metadata</a> or additional activities from <a href="https://docs.cardano.org/en/latest/native-tokens/learn-about-native-tokens.html" rel="noreferrer">native Tokens</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/coinmonks/nfts-in-cardano-the-earliest-projects-ab7624cc703f" rel="noreferrer">NFT</a>s and soon Smart-Contracts may increase the growth rate a bit.</p>
<p>So existing Hard drives with 2-12 TeraByte capacity should provide plenty of space for the next years.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-26T08:15:38.580Z
2021-05-26T08:15:38.580Z
Markus - CLIO1
<p>One issue bitcoiners like to mention is node size in relation to decentralisation. Currently we are at like 10gb, I saw that the max growth is apparently 100gb a year. Are there any plans for reducing this? Or do we think technological improvements will be fast enough in the hard drive space that 100gb a year is fine? I agree with the importance of making it available to the average person to run a node.</p>

<blockchain><decentralization><node>
Are there plans to keep the blockchain/node size small enough to maintain decentralisation?
# Are there plans to keep the blockchain/node size small enough to maintain decentralisation?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-05-25)

One issue bitcoiners like to mention is node size in relation to decentralisation. Currently we are at like 10gb, I saw that the max growth is apparently 100gb a year. Are there any plans for reducing this? Or do we think technological improvements will be fast enough in the hard drive space that 100gb a year is fine? I agree with the importance of making it available to the average person to run a node.

**Tags:** blockchain, decentralization, node

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-05-26. Score: 6

I assume with "*blockchain/node size*" you mean the growing size of the immutable ledger database. The current growth rate is pretty linear. In the last 100 days it grew from 7 up to 10.5 GB

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/VFpOw.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/VFpOw.png)

So we see a **growth rate of about 1 GB per month**, which would result in a 12 GB per year.

Keep in mind the ledger DB folder now contains every UTXO action since Nov-2017, not just since Shelley-Mainnet launch in Aug-2020.

New capabilities like [Metadata](https://docs.cardano.org/projects/cardano-serialization-lib/en/latest/getting-started/metadata.html) or additional activities from [native Tokens](https://docs.cardano.org/en/latest/native-tokens/learn-about-native-tokens.html), [NFT](https://medium.com/coinmonks/nfts-in-cardano-the-earliest-projects-ab7624cc703f)s and soon Smart-Contracts may increase the growth rate a bit.

So existing Hard drives with 2-12 TeraByte capacity should provide plenty of space for the next years.


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