Apr 26, 2023

So those are some thoughts on full download with no validation. And with milestones there is no need for validation before the top milestone. The confirmation process prior to the next validation (set_strong) is 19 minutes, however confirmation requires only 1-2 seconds for the full chain. So the chain can be operational immediately after download, and can accept blocks for validation within 19 minutes of full download. However, under milestone strong entries can be written as blocks are written, and in this case require no read. That essentially eliminates that cost as the strong writes are very small. So < 1.5 hour download and operation under milestone looks very achievable.