Running my own Bitcoin node

N

NoahA

So I'm seriously considering doing this. I have a spare laptop running Windows 10, 700GB free space, and unlimited bandwidth. The electricity to keep it on 24hrs per day is only about $5 per month.

I figure why not help out the network while I learn. I own a Trezor wallet, and its interesting to read how this is one area where you lose privacy since all transactions go through their node. Mind you, I'm not really doing any transactions other than stacking more sats, but perhaps in the future I might even want to play around with running a Lightning payment channel.

I would follow the guide here, and I'm also quite interested in running it over Tor like in step 4, but would love to read about pros and cons of this.

https://academy.aax.com/en/a-step-by-step-guide-to-setting-up-a-full-node-on-the-bitcoin-network/

Any feedback would be great.
 
NoahA said:
So I'm seriously considering doing this. I have a spare laptop running Windows 10, 700GB free space, and unlimited bandwidth. The electricity to keep it on 24hrs per day is only about $5 per month.

I figure why not help out the network while I learn. I own a Trezor wallet, and its interesting to read how this is one area where you lose privacy since all transactions go through their node. Mind you, I'm not really doing any transactions other than stacking more sats, but perhaps in the future I might even want to play around with running a Lightning payment channel.

I would follow the guide here, and I'm also quite interested in running it over Tor like in step 4, but would love to read about pros and cons of this.

https://academy.aax.com/en/a-step-by-step-guide-to-setting-up-a-full-node-on-the-bitcoin-network/

Any feedback would be great.
More...

That is definitely a @johnarb question.
 
NoahA said:
So I'm seriously considering doing this. I have a spare laptop running Windows 10, 700GB free space, and unlimited bandwidth. The electricity to keep it on 24hrs per day is only about $5 per month.

I figure why not help out the network while I learn. I own a Trezor wallet, and its interesting to read how this is one area where you lose privacy since all transactions go through their node. Mind you, I'm not really doing any transactions other than stacking more sats, but perhaps in the future I might even want to play around with running a Lightning payment channel.

I would follow the guide here, and I'm also quite interested in running it over Tor like in step 4, but would love to read about pros and cons of this.

https://academy.aax.com/en/a-step-by-step-guide-to-setting-up-a-full-node-on-the-bitcoin-network/

Any feedback would be great.
More...
What's in it for you?
 
schizo said:
What's in it for you?
More...
Does life always have to work like this?

But I honestly think the experience will be worthwhile, and the extra step of ensuring privacy by using my own node for transactions might be a smart move in the future. Don't forget, other than time, it really isn't costing very much at all. Even if I get hacked, the computer has no private data and was otherwise doing nothing, so my risk is very small I figure.
 
NoahA said:
Does life always have to work like this?

But I honestly think the experience will be worthwhile, and the extra step of ensuring privacy by using my own node for transactions might be a smart move in the future. Don't forget, other than time, it really isn't costing very much at all. Even if I get hacked, the computer has no private data and was otherwise doing nothing, so my risk is very small I figure.
More...

How does having your own node give you any more privacy than using any other wallet?
 
NoahA said:
So I'm seriously considering doing this. I have a spare laptop running Windows 10, 700GB free space, and unlimited bandwidth. The electricity to keep it on 24hrs per day is only about $5 per month.

I figure why not help out the network while I learn. I own a Trezor wallet, and its interesting to read how this is one area where you lose privacy since all transactions go through their node. Mind you, I'm not really doing any transactions other than stacking more sats, but perhaps in the future I might even want to play around with running a Lightning payment channel.

I would follow the guide here, and I'm also quite interested in running it over Tor like in step 4, but would love to read about pros and cons of this.

https://academy.aax.com/en/a-step-by-step-guide-to-setting-up-a-full-node-on-the-bitcoin-network/

Any feedback would be great.
More...

For a full node running 24/7

https://umbrel.com/

I run an Umbrel Bitcoin and LN node over Tor, plus Blue Wallet connected to the node over Tor

I have a NUC core-i5 running Linux Ubuntu. The nice thing about Umbrel is that it runs as a docker instance so installation, maintenance, upgrades are very easy

Then you get some very nice tools (apps) the best one imo is the mempool which is your very own Bitcoin blockchain explorer, as has been suspected for a while, many of the public Bitcoin blockchain explorers were collecting IP addresses

Storing all of your bitcoins on the full node is not good OpSec. Personally, I only have enough to maintain the LN node and to support any transactions I make on the BlueWallet LN app

For your main stack run Bitcoin Core compiled directly from github source code and run it over socks proxy you control or cold storage of your choice

The reason to run a full node is to support the Bitcoin network and also to make sure you have a copy of the truth

Running SPV wallets like Electrum relies on public servers that are controlled by others unless you run your own electrum server yourself and connect to it with your Electrum app

I've never owned a Trezor or Ledger or any hardware wallet. I think one of them got hacked and customer data got leaked and many people were getting threatening emails to blackmail them

A used laptop from ebay is pretty cheap, run Linux on it and compile the Bitcoin core and you have a full bitcoin node, but maybe run it over Tor or a socks proxy you control otherwise your ISP and its employees will know you're running Bitcoin and they know where you live, $5 wrench attack not so good
 
johnarb said:
For a full node running 24/7

https://umbrel.com/

I run an Umbrel Bitcoin and LN node over Tor, plus Blue Wallet connected to the node over Tor

I have a NUC core-i5 running Linux Ubuntu. The nice thing about Umbrel is that it runs as a docker instance so installation, maintenance, upgrades are very easy

Then you get some very nice tools (apps) the best one imo is the mempool which is your very own Bitcoin blockchain explorer, as has been suspected for a while, many of the public Bitcoin blockchain explorers were collecting IP addresses

Storing all of your bitcoins on the full node is not good OpSec. Personally, I only have enough to maintain the LN node and to support any transactions I make on the BlueWallet LN app

For your main stack run Bitcoin Core compiled directly from github source code and run it over socks proxy you control or cold storage of your choice

The reason to run a full node is to support the Bitcoin network and also to make sure you have a copy of the truth

Running SPV wallets like Electrum relies on public servers that are controlled by others unless you run your own electrum server yourself and connect to it with your Electrum app

I've never owned a Trezor or Ledger or any hardware wallet. I think one of them got hacked and customer data got leaked and many people were getting threatening emails to blackmail them

A used laptop from ebay is pretty cheap, run Linux on it and compile the Bitcoin core and you have a full bitcoin node, but maybe run it over Tor or a socks proxy you control otherwise your ISP and its employees will know you're running Bitcoin and they know where you live, $5 wrench attack not so good
More...
Yikes, this is all quite complicated. I really want to stay with Windows as I don't want to add to the learning curve by having to dabble in another operating system.

I probably really don't need my hardware wallet integration yet since I'm not planning to really do any transactions, just wanted the option. And sadly, at the bottom of that link to Trezor, it specifically says that that "Bitcoin Core is not currently supported by Trezor Suite."

So I guess for now I will just install the Bitcoin Core software, get it to sync up, connect with Tor, and see how it goes over the next few weeks.
 
NoahA said:
Yikes, this is all quite complicated. I really want to stay with Windows as I don't want to add to the learning curve by having to dabble in another operating system.

I probably really don't need my hardware wallet integration yet since I'm not planning to really do any transactions, just wanted the option. And sadly, at the bottom of that link to Trezor, it specifically says that that "Bitcoin Core is not currently supported by Trezor Suite."

So I guess for now I will just install the Bitcoin Core software, get it to sync up, connect with Tor, and see how it goes over the next few weeks.
More...

Looking forward to hear how it goes. I personally only built few prototypes on Ganache local blockchain. About 6 months back was seriously considering launching my own Alt coin, but it is futile, over 10K of these.
 
NoahA said:
Yikes, this is all quite complicated. I really want to stay with Windows as I don't want to add to the learning curve by having to dabble in another operating system.

I probably really don't need my hardware wallet integration yet since I'm not planning to really do any transactions, just wanted the option. And sadly, at the bottom of that link to Trezor, it specifically says that that "Bitcoin Core is not currently supported by Trezor Suite."

So I guess for now I will just install the Bitcoin Core software, get it to sync up, connect with Tor, and see how it goes over the next few weeks.
More...

There are many guides on creating an Umbrel node using a raspberry pi kit, the image for the SD card is ready to go

The great thing about an Umbrel node is you get a full Bitcoin node and Lightning Node in one, plus many many apps, I mentioned Mempool, but also there's Pi-hole or your very own cloud storage server, all in that one node

A full Bitcoin node, one that is open for other nodes to connect to and is actively relaying block information to other nodes is a very important component of the Bitcoin network

There is no payment for running a Bitcoin node

The payment is the knowledge that you hold the full truth of the Bitcoin network and its history going to the very start genesis block and your node is enforcing all the rules of the Bitcoin software protocol using that full truth called the Bitcoin blockchain

A full Bitcoin node that does not have even 1 single satoshi on its wallet has the same equal voice on the Bitcoin network as a full Bitcoin node with 1000 BTC's on its wallet
 
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