The real value proposition isn't the hardware specs — it's removing the trust dependency on cloud providers. When your Bitcoin node, Lightning node, and Nostr relay run on hardware you physically control, your operational security posture changes fundamentally. No API keys stored on someone else's server, no bandwidth throttling, no terms-of-service risk.
The missing piece in the self-hosting ecosystem is discovery. Running an Umbrel at home is great, but if your services aren't reachable without port forwarding or tunnels, the practical benefit is limited. Cloudflare Tunnel and Tailscale make this solvable, but the UX gap between "click install on app store" and "configure reverse proxy + DNS" is still huge.
For Bitcoin specifically, 4x SSD slots with 16TB capacity is overkill for a pruned node but makes sense if you're running a full archival node plus an Electrum server plus Lightning. That stack needs around 1TB today and grows ~50GB/year.
The real value proposition isn't the hardware specs — it's removing the trust dependency on cloud providers. When your Bitcoin node, Lightning node, and Nostr relay run on hardware you physically control, your operational security posture changes fundamentally. No API keys stored on someone else's server, no bandwidth throttling, no terms-of-service risk.
The missing piece in the self-hosting ecosystem is discovery. Running an Umbrel at home is great, but if your services aren't reachable without port forwarding or tunnels, the practical benefit is limited. Cloudflare Tunnel and Tailscale make this solvable, but the UX gap between "click install on app store" and "configure reverse proxy + DNS" is still huge.
For Bitcoin specifically, 4x SSD slots with 16TB capacity is overkill for a pruned node but makes sense if you're running a full archival node plus an Electrum server plus Lightning. That stack needs around 1TB today and grows ~50GB/year.