reply on: How to set up an affordable bitcoin node? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

10 sats \ 8 replies \ @ama 18 Mar 2023 \ parent \ on: How to set up an affordable bitcoin node? bitcoin

If you already like Debian, you'll certainly like Devuan, since it is actually the continuation of Debian but without systemd.

I currently run a prune BTC node and a full LTC node on a Pentium 4 desktop with 6GB RAM and two 512GB HDDs on BTRFS RAID-1 on Devuan chimaera. I got all the hardware for free, and it works very well.

I want to run a full node on this box (I do in others). so I'm planning to replace the HDDs with 1TB ones and rescan the BTC blockchain. :-)

0 sats \ 7 replies \ @mooz OP 18 Mar 2023

Totally noob question: Does the node really have to run 24/7? What happens if I do some transactions, the switch it off and switch on in a few days?

I will still be able to do more transactions but only after it has synched the blockchain?

10 sats \ 6 replies \ @ama 18 Mar 2023

No, nodes don't need to run 24/7. For a while I've been running some nodes only at night and during the weekends, when electricity was cheaper.

What happens if I do some transactions, the switch it off and switch on in a few days?

Your wallet will still have your private keys, ready to sign transactions to expend your utxos. The node will synchronize the blockchain when you turn it back on. If it's been just a few days off, synchronization won't take too long.

What I usually do is having small amounts on LN or on-chain wallets on my phones ready for quick small transactions while my nodes are off.

0 sats \ 5 replies \ @mooz OP 18 Mar 2023

Great! I got the point ;)

30 sats \ 4 replies \ @ama 18 Mar 2023

I'm glad I could help. It's all a little confusing at first, although not complicated.

Perhaps you could start running a testnet Bitcoin node. Synchronization takes much shorter, disk space is much less, and stress for the possibility of making a mistake is also reduced a lot.

Also, it's cool helping run the testnet and you can try any crazy thing you might think about. :-)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ama 19 Mar 2023

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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @mooz OP 19 Mar 2023

Good idea. I will start with a testnet node in a VM while I‘m still looking for some good hardware for a real full node.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @ama 19 Mar 2023

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ama 18 Mar 2023

I've just downloaded the whole testnet blockchain. It's taken about three hours and it's only 31GB of space. I'm going to leave it running on the P4 alongside the prune BTC node and the full LTC node for the moment. :-)