user4027: I'm truly lost about how bitcoin works.
I understand a blockchain contains all transactions ever made. So, what things need to be verified while I'm downloading the whole blockchain? If it's just the hash of each block, the processing/verification speed of earlier blocks should be same as later blocks, right? 
Only better guess I have, is that if anything need to be indexed, then that would explain why later blocks are slower. So is this the case?

user4028: Earlier blocks had fewer transactions, and so were smaller. Later blocks have many transactions, and so are much larger.

4027: <p>I'm truly lost about how bitcoin works.</p>

<p>I understand a blockchain contains all transactions ever made. So, what things need to be verified while I'm downloading the whole blockchain? If it's just the hash of each block, the processing/verification speed of earlier blocks should be same as later blocks, right? </p>

<p>Only better guess I have, is that if anything need to be indexed, then that would explain why later blocks are slower. So is this the case?</p>
 4028: <p>Earlier blocks had fewer transactions, and so were smaller. Later blocks have many transactions, and so are much larger.</p>
