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34 sats \ 4 replies \ @kepford 8 Mar \ on: How much does it cost you to run a bitcoin node? bitcoin
It depends on the computer power usage. IMO compared to the value it provides me, its free.
Yes. If you do it yourself and you didn't spend too much on specialized hardware, it can get close to free. Also you don't have keep it on all the time.
Next question is how much bigger can blocks get without making running a node expensive?
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There is zero need for specialize hardware. You can buy a used 1 liter PC off Ebay for around $100. That is unless your time is worth more and you are referring to pre-setup solutions like Start9. It actually takes very little resources to run a node. But maybe I'm misunderstanding you.
I don't know the answer to your second question. I think bigger blocks is about many things. Mining, network usage, disk space, and processing power. I wasn't really involved back during the block size wars but I suspect block size could increase at some point in the future depending on the advancement of baseline computing power.
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Any old computer will probably get the job done. I was referring to the prefab solutions that you see advertised everywhere. I'm assuming some people must use those, otherwise where would those companies get their advertising budgets?
Regarding the blocksize question: In talking to nonbitcoiners, I've often said that the network gets its decentralization and censorship resistance from lots of people running nodes. Therefore we should make it cheap to do this. And that that was one of the big reasons for not increasing block size.
Maybe this is just a spurious argument that I have blindly accepted, but it makes sense to me.
But then I was wondering, do people feel like running a node is expensive? Especially in the situation with recent complaints about non transaction data filling blocks. Hence my poll.
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There will always be a business for people whose time is worth more than the savings and learning from doing the work. The prices on these solutions are very good IMO. I don't buy them because I'd rather do it myself.
Yeah, I understand what you are saying about being expensive. That's a relative question of course as you know. I do not believe most people in bitcoin will ever run a node. I do believe we will see many many more nodes than are being run today but based on people's behaviors in other areas most are too lazy. That's fine by me. I'm not basing my hope on the actions of others. There will always be an elect group of bitcoiners that carry the torch. I'm all for lowing the bar. Companies making it easy, nodes being baked into hardware that does other things. I can see that happening. It will get easier and cheaper. It will get cheaper the faster we get to a bitcoin standard.
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