Thanks, Peter and you convinced me. I run away with a thought. It’d be great to find a spot to deploy payment channels, but I agree this is not it. Tamas Blummer http://bitsofproof.com On 10.04.2014, at 12:40, Mike Hearn wrote: > 1) There is no catch 22 as there are plenty of ways getting bitcoin without bootstrapping a full node. > > I think I maybe wasn't clear. To spend coins you need transaction data. Today, the dominant model is that people get that data by scanning the block chain. If you can obtain the transaction data without doing that then, either: > > 1) Someone is doing chain scanning for free. See my point about "why pay if you can get it for free". > > 2) You got your tx data direct from the person you who sent you the funds, perhaps via the payment protocol. This would resolve the catch 22 by allowing you to spend bitcoins without actually having talked to the P2P network first, but we're a loooooong way from this world. > > And that's it. I don't think there are any other ways to get the tx data you need. Either someone gives it to you in the act of spending, or someone else gives it away for free, undermining the charge-for-the-p2p-network model.