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Title: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: RapTarX on March 02, 2019, 02:24:01 PM What is bitcoin full node?
I already have once written an article on what is a full node. I will quote this here. ]Full Node Another easy definition of Full Node- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5111493.msg49814296#msg49814296If you understand what does it mean by the word "Full", you should probably have guessed now what is full node. Full node denotes to a wallet where the users have to have downloaded the whole blockchain. If we are talking about running a full node for bitcoin, you must have to have downloaded all the previous transaction list. We usually call it synchronization. You have to download the whole bitcoin transaction record from the beginning, block 1 to until the up to date block. It will probably require you to have more than 400 gb free space on your disk. If you are using a wallet which asks you to download all the block, you are running a full node. Why should we use bitcoin full node? Benefits are a lot, some are your personal benefits and some for the bitcoin network. Personal Benefits: 1. You have the full control over your fund. 2. No intermediary. 3. You are trusting yourself, your funds are secured. Benefits for bitcoin network: 1. Verifying bitcoin transactions, blocks and their height, hash etc. 2. More decentralized network. 3. Less or no chance of altering data. This is one of the discussions from which I came to know about the benefits of running bitcoin full nodes- https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7n62qf/why_should_you_run_a_full_node/ Number of active full nodes right now- 10405* (Source- https://coin.dance/nodes) Historic numbers of full bitcoin nodes since August 2015 (Range- 4 months) Amount in Thousand http://i67.tinypic.com/24x15xg.jpg By observing the above graph, we can come to the conclusion that Bitcoin full nodes have been increasing significantly since last years. At the beginning of 2018, the change was notable. It's good for the network obviously and in the future, we can expect a huge growth of bitcoin full nodes. My thoughts I have decided to set up a full node for my personal benefits as well as helping the total community. What's your thought? I would love to hear. Title: Re: Number of full nodes over since 2015 Post by: ABCbits on March 02, 2019, 04:23:22 PM Personal Benefits: 1. You have the full control over your fund. 3. You are trusting yourself, your funds are secured. 1. If you mean only yourself owning private key/seed, then it's also possible with SPV/Lite wallet 3. IMO it's biased opinion, you still need to trust software/client which used to run full nodes. The real benefit is you don't need trust other full nodes where as you need to partially-trust them if you use SPV/Lite wallet Title: Re: Number of full nodes over since 2015 Post by: Velkro on March 02, 2019, 04:31:19 PM I have decided to set up a full node for my personal benefits as well as helping the total community. What's your thought? I would love to hear. You did great thing. If you benefit from bitcoin why not give something back to the community.Additional info on your setup especially HDD for whole blockchain would be interesting. Title: Re: Number of full nodes over since 2015 Post by: NeuroticFish on March 02, 2019, 07:05:22 PM I have decided to set up a full node for my personal benefits as well as helping the total community. What's your thought? I would love to hear. Very nice of you! The only place I could really start a full node would be at work. There I have computers which I can leave running 24/7 without questions. But they look at the traffic and I would get questioned what on earth I upload at about 17 GB/day. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3286296.msg34291483#msg34291483) And at home my laptop doesn't run more than 10-20h / week, which wouldn't be of much help. So I use SPV wallet, which unfortunately means I don't help the network... Title: Re: Number of full nodes over since 2015 Post by: Artemis3 on March 02, 2019, 10:15:51 PM My thoughts I have decided to set up a full node for my personal benefits as well as helping the total community. What's your thought? I would love to hear. In December i also decided to make the effort and run a full (non pruned) node (over tor), i have been syncing at nights since then, painfully waiting for gigs and gigs of data download and processing. Currently i'm almost only 1 year behind, so the day is getting closer for me to be in sync. Unfortunately i don't use a core wallet, since in my country it would be impossible. Since i'm taking all this effort to sync the blockchain, once i finish i might as well set up a wallet just in case, an Electrum server and a Lightning Node server. Here is where i am at right now: 2019-03-02T22:17:44Z UpdateTip: new best=000000000000000000132f8a65053f47be69d349e6bad77087297f030f16df18 height=506034 version=0x20000000 log2_work=87.958875 tx=295278051 date='2018-01-25T09:48:53Z' progress=0.785072 cache=3.1MiB(24076txo) Almost there... Title: Re: Number of full nodes over since 2015 Post by: RapTarX on March 03, 2019, 04:05:06 AM Unfortunately i don't use a core wallet, since in my country it would be impossible. Have you referred to China? I am concerned at all about countries restricted core wallet. Would appreciate if you share some countries. I have tried to learn about it on google but didn't find anything. Can you list some countries here?Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: hugeblack on March 03, 2019, 04:05:07 PM The fear that all people possess when downloading a full-node wallet is the size of the data, and therefore the need for more storage space, fast internet connection, and unlimited bandwidth.
You can indicate how to reduce the space by enabling pruning and downloading the entire Blockchain to an external disk. Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: RapTarX on March 03, 2019, 04:10:48 PM The fear that all people possess when downloading a full-node wallet is the size of the data, and therefore the need for more storage space, fast internet connection, and unlimited bandwidth. I have been using 1 terabyte harddisk but none of the drive is more than 400 gb. I will purchase an external disk on the weekend and use it to download the entire blockchain.You can indicate how to reduce the space by enabling pruning and downloading the entire Blockchain to an external disk. When I run bitcoin core, it says 5 days will be required to sync, is that normal? Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: RapTarX on March 05, 2019, 07:18:25 AM Yes, it's normal. Few things that makes sync long : I will use an external disk. My PC configuration is updated, at least not a barebone PC. I think those will cope up the possibility of being sync long. I'm using 5 mbps broadband connection. So, I am all in all okay with the requirements.1. You use HDD which causes bottleneck (applies if you have fast connection) 2. Your internet connection is slow 3. You use very old or barebone PC (such as Raspberry PI) which causes bottleneck on CPU/RAM Back in 2018, before joining this forum, it seems impossible running a full node to me. After all, being used to is the best way to learn a lot of things. Thank you anyway. Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: Artemis3 on March 05, 2019, 10:22:18 PM When I run bitcoin core, it says 5 days will be required to sync, is that normal? Yes, it's normal. Few things that makes sync long : 1. You use HDD which causes bottleneck (applies if you have fast connection) 2. Your internet connection is slow 3. You use very old or barebone PC (such as Raspberry PI) which causes bottleneck on CPU/RAM 5 days? Lol. I'm into my 3rd month since i started syncing, but I'm now only 10 months behind, so in a few weeks it should complete. One thing i have noticed: the hard disk usage is heavy, think swapfile heavy... I wouldn't recommend using an SSD, they might be fast but they would deteriorate quickly... Perhaps if you have a LOT of ram (16g+) and run a pruned node, a ram disk would be interesting. I haven't observed a particularly high CPU usage, but ram could indeed be a problem if under 1gb. Unfortunately i don't use a core wallet, since in my country it would be impossible. Have you referred to China? I am concerned at all about countries restricted core wallet. Would appreciate if you share some countries. I have tried to learn about it on google but didn't find anything. Can you list some countries here?List of countries for what, poor internet speeds (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_connection_speeds)?, or Bitcoin prohibition/draconian regulation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country_or_territory)? Just look in Wikipedia. Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: nc50lc on March 06, 2019, 03:04:06 AM I have been using 1 terabyte harddisk but none of the drive is more than 400 gb. I will purchase an external disk on the weekend and use it to download the entire blockchain. 5Days, that's quite long, your internet connection or processor must be at medium spec.When I run bitcoin core, it says 5 days will be required to sync, is that normal? In comparison: Low spec PC and slower internet will take weeks for the node to sync; some reported that they successful sync within a day (must have a beast PC and premium internet connection). In terms of your 1TB Hard disk and Drives (Partitions), you can always "Shirk Volume" the other partition in order to "Extend Volume" the Partition where the blocks were stored. At least allocate 700GB for now. Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: Artemis3 on March 06, 2019, 03:17:16 PM 5 days? Lol. I'm into my 3rd month since i started syncing, but I'm now only 10 months behind, so in a few weeks it should complete. One thing i have noticed: the hard disk usage is heavy, think swapfile heavy... I wouldn't recommend using an SSD, they might be fast but they would deteriorate quickly... Perhaps if you have a LOT of ram (16g+) and run a pruned node, a ram disk would be interesting. I haven't observed a particularly high CPU usage, but ram could indeed be a problem if under 1gb. 3rd month? IMO You don't need force yourself to run full nodes if it took that long, unless the reason is you have slow internet connection (but fast enough to receive transaction / blocks after sync done) Using SSD to store blockchain should be okay as Storage I/O is only high on first-time sync and rescan whole blockchain (if you didn't exit Bitcoin Core safely, then your chainstate is corrupt). Low RAM capacity indeed is a problem and sometimes lead sync process fail, but Pieter Wuille share configuration to solve such problem at https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/50743 (https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/50743) Now that i entered 2018, it appears to be syncing much, much faster. The bandwidth is the same, about 1.5mbps dl 0.3mbps ul. I'm currently here: 2019-03-06T15:13:56Z UpdateTip: new best=00000000000000000013e550da16eba605dd20c405bbcd23bb97ae2d087d8a94 height=531140 version=0x20000000 log2_work=89.202827 tx=326955456 date='2018-07-09T06:03:48Z' progress=0.867523 cache=1471.9MiB(11084957txo) Definite improvement after SegWit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SegWit). I'm sure keeping it synced after reaching the end would be easy in comparison. The pain is always getting the entire blockchain since 2009... I wish i had that satellite receiver. Do note i have to stop it usually during daytime because both the bandwidth usage and hard disk I/O is very taxing. I was able to tame the disk io a bit by using ionice -c3 bitcoind instead of just bitcoind. Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: simthdw on March 14, 2019, 07:26:02 AM A fact is BFC mining machine (also known as Baofeng in China) started to ship on Jan.2018. They sold about 30,000 mining machine, each has 4T hard-drive.
BFC is a distributed system provide CDN and blockchain full node services(They helped a lot of blockchain team such as Qtum to extend full node numbers). Bitcoin full node is also one of their service - a free service to bitcoin community. There should be some bitcoin nodes on their distributed network . Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: Artemis3 on March 15, 2019, 09:53:10 PM I'm almost there, but now blackouts are getting in the way... just a tiny little bit more to go:
2019-03-15T21:26:30Z UpdateTip: new best=0000000000000000001c8566f33f3438e8b2d09a7f70e8f77c6fdeef06581508 height=552421 version=0x20000000 log2_work=90.089839 tx=361708149 date='2018-12-03T19:44:25Z' progress=0.944720 cache=543.2MiB(3971670txo) Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: RapTarX on May 06, 2019, 02:15:46 PM According to bitnodes (https://bitnodes.earn.com/), the current number of nodes have been decreased to 9.5k, a 8.37% decrease wihin the last 90 days.
There should be some bitcoin nodes on their distributed network . The day I have created this post, according to bitnodes, the total number of nodes in China was 373, it has been decreased 340, a 8.80% reduce in the number.Today http://i67.tinypic.com/2h7h2d2.png On March 02 http://i63.tinypic.com/vqpspf.png Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: RapTarX on July 10, 2019, 02:31:28 PM According to bitnodes (https://bitnodes.earn.com/), the current number of nodes has been increased to 9.8k, an average of 4.10% increase within the last 90 days.
In China, on March 02, the number was 343, which has turned into 433 as of now, a massive 26% increase. Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: RapTarX on November 04, 2019, 03:19:16 PM From my previous update on last July, the number of active node has been decreased. But within the last 90 days, ~16% has been increased.
https://i.imgur.com/MuSI2sR.png Same as, In China the number of nodes have been decreased from my last update but within the last 90 days it has been increased as well. https://i.imgur.com/gT7oj58.png If anyone is wondering why I am doing this- I most often check the active nodes worldwide and share here as well so that other user can also have a look. Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: RapTarX on May 24, 2020, 05:10:48 PM I'm back again.
Number of nodes have been increased accroding to bitnodes, however, in China it has been decreased. I have no clue though what's the reason? May be the corona virus affect? https://i.imgur.com/ZpcCwjS.jpg Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: malevolent on May 27, 2020, 05:08:54 AM I think the nodes' networks tab is much more interesting:
https://i.imgur.com/LMYGmAX.png So many nodes are on major hosting companies' networks. I wonder if it's any different with Bitcoin nodes running over Tor (is there hopefully more variety in ASes and are residential IP addresses more common or not). Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: RapTarX on May 28, 2020, 06:36:17 PM Does that mean the numbers are barely correct? Since, people can run nodes on TOR ip, or host their nodes on VPS, the number of stats are not so true I guess. Well, I never thought in that way. Where can we get the actual number of nodes based on different state?
Title: Re: Number of full nodes since 2015 Post by: VB1001 on May 30, 2020, 06:36:10 AM In Bitnodes you only see the nodes that are listening and that are visible.
There are many hidden nodes that are not visible, nodes that are not listened to, they can be behind a firewall, Tor or because they are configured not to listen to the connections. https://i.imgur.com/zfZ0kKb.png Where you can see the highest number of active nodes is on the page of https://luke.dashjr.org/programs/bitcoin/files/charts/software.html (https://luke.dashjr.org/programs/bitcoin/files/charts/software.html) It currently shows +/- 43,300 but it is estimated that there are many more hosted on servers or in the cloud. There are probably many, many more. |
