[richcollins]

There is an iOS wallet that connects directly to the network that downloads the necessary info in seconds:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/breadwallet-bitcoin-wallet/i...

[deweller]

This uses Simplfied Payment Verification (SPV).

SPV helps with some scalability issues, but doesn't solve them all.

From http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/4649/what-is-an-s...:

> SPV: A Bitcoin implementation that does not verify everything, but instead relies on either connecting to a trusted node, or puts its faith in high difficulty as a proxy for proof of validity. BitCoinJ is an implementation of this mode.

See also:

http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/11054/understandi...

[EC1]

Wouldn't this be really power draining? Having to sync and download constantly.