If you've tried recently to sync up a self-hosted ETH wallet app, you've probably noticed what an incredibly long time it takes to get the whole blockchain. Mea

If you've tried recently to sync up a self-hosted ETH wallet app, you've probably noticed what an incredibly long time it takes to get the whole blockchain. Meanwhile the HDD is thrashing around like crazy; if you're not using an SSD then forget it. Wallet apps like Parity are a little more forgiving (probably smarter in how they handle the blockchain), but still, it's dozens of gigabytes already. To me, the single, shared, universal blockchain idea seems more like a proof of concept. It's also pretty hard to ask every node in the network to see every possible transaction. I am virtually certain that whatever ends up taking over the world will not operate that way. Things just don't scale like that.