Initial header synchronization improved

With the next release of the XEP wallets an updated initial header synchronization will be implemented.

The header synchronization of the blockchain happens in two steps: first the header is synchronized, later the blocks. In the current XEP wallets, the header sync can take up to 15 to 30 minutes depending on the hardware and connection to the Internet, as the each header has to be computed. This waiting time now has been greatly reduced to around 10 to 30 seconds.

A full new sync on a device now also takes just 10 seconds for the headers and the re-indexing of a wallet just 30 seconds. When users turned off their wallet for a couple of days or weeks, the device had to compute the headers and sync them before to start the block sync. This means that currently some people can be “stuck” for a long time until the math are resolved. This means a lot of time savings in such a case.

The new XEP wallet update will be rolled out during 2022.