In some embodiments, a method receives data for a block in a blockchain during a recovery process in which a recovering replica is recovering the block for a first instance of the blockchain being maintained by the recovering replica. The block is received from a second instance of the blockchain being maintained by a source replica. The method splits the data for the block into a plurality of chunks. Each chunk includes a portion of the data for the block; It is determined whether the recovering replica can recover a chunk in the plurality of chunks using a representation of the chunk. In response to determining that the recovering replica can recover the chunk, sending the representation of the chunk to the recovering replica. In response to determining that the recovering replica cannot recover the chunk, sending the data for the chunk to the recovering replica.