Dosen't the blockchain already compact? Correct me if i'm wrong but once a block is hashed and confirmed as the most recent block, why would you need to store the previous blocks?
However I admit much of my assumptions are just from reading the original paper so i'm probably over-simplifying. I guess it would make sense they need some history but not sure why they would need all of it since the previous blocks are confirmed?
Unless I'm missing something something pretty big about how Bitcoin's blockchain works.
"Full nodes are the most secure way to use Bitcoin, they do not suffer from many attacks that affect lightweight wallets...[a]s explained previously, full nodes enforce the consensus rules no matter what. However, lightweight nodes do not do this."