Bitcoin Forum

The bitcoin network needs more full nodes. If you own a computer, and arent running a full node, Id like to hear why.

Its no secret that most people who are mining are simply submitting shares to pools, and dont actually run the full Bitcoin software (this goes for alts as well).

This declining node trend decreases the security and reliability of the Bitcoin network.

More nodes means more security. Download it here:

https://bitcoin.org/en/download

I was running one for a month or so, but it was fairly expensive to host ($10/month and I didn't get anything out of it) so I stopped the node after a month. It relayed probably 30 transactions in that month, and I'm not sure if the contributions it made to the network were worth $10 to me and others, which is why I stopped.

I might think about starting one up again if there's a feature implemented that pays node operators - something like a masternode that Darkcoin has implemented. Then it would make more sense to me.

As for security, I think the real security issue we have right now is that Cex.io has been eerily close to having 50% of the network hashrate for months now, IMO having ~7k nodes and worrying about security on them is a lower priority than people having 50%+ of the network hashrate.

Because it takes too long for me to download the blockchain and I don't want to be using all my bandwidth uploading and downloading on a continuous basis to other peers. Not all of us live in America where unlimited internet is a standard. Not to mention I don't want to have to run my computer 24/7 which is what you're meant to do if you truly want to run a full node properly.

And don't forget to forward port 8333.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128122.0

I thought I was by running Armory but found that I may not have the correct port enabled.

Virus signatures in the block chain.

I run a partial node but not a full node 24/7, but it would be nice if there was a node/tip-jar/fee for running one to cover electricity and internet.

This may be a wrong belief, I think running a full node exposes my home computer to potential attacks. There must be a secure way to setup a full node without sacrificing security, but I do not know how to. I will just leave it to the more able bitcoiners.

How much of an issue is this, really? Last I saw there were over 8,000 nodes.

That being said I decided to fire up my full node again at home. As far as security, I don't have any populated wallets on the linux virtual machine it runs on. I port forward manually off my firewall. I use the "connect=<ip>" configuration option on my laptop which has my real wallet so that I'm not downloading the blockchain twice on the same network connection. I feel that adds an additional layer of buffering between my laptop which is not always on and the rest of the net.

Just because my sdd is only 120gb and I already have a hard time with it.
Keeping a few gb's free so I can install anything I want.
I do however have a network hdd where I can store my download's so that makes it a little easier!
Also I didnt know that you could run a node by just having the bitcoin software open.

Having it open and allowing incoming connections.  You know your allowing incoming connections when you have more than 8 connections.

I've heard that as well - I think you'd be safe though by encrypting your bitcoin wallet. I'm not 100% certain, but I suspect that would protect you from any incoming attacks.

I have had a problem running a full node ever since I unblocked the port that it needs. (Before that the client always had about 8 connections.) Now the number of connections gradually rises over a period of a few days if I let it untill there are over a hundred connections, and then my screen freezes and I have to do a hard reset. This may be caused by low memory on my machine.

If I could limit it to a sane number of connections I and perhaps others would run a node all the time.

Suggestions?

Its an Ubuntu 12.04 system by the way.

Use the command line argument "-maxconnections=n"

os2sam - Thank you for that. I had looked for such a thing, obviously ineffectively!! I shall try this.

there needs to be a way to run a full node on a raspberry or similar device, with little electrical cost and no space requirements.

The major reason is that I don't have a high internet bandwidth (esp. the upload bandwidth)...

i have a raspberry i would like someone to tell me how to set it up

speaking of bandwidth, here's what's consumed by around 700 bitcoind connections after a new block (other tcp connections for p2pool/aliencoin)

http://nogleg.com/dstatbtc.png

well it's no secret that my gridseed miners are pieces of crap and need to be plugged in and out each f*cking time i mine.

I actually do run a full node:

https://blockchain.info/ip-address/69.12.85.226

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit
Disk: 30GB
RAM: 1GB
Bandwidth: 1TB

$19/year on weloveservers.net (during their anniversary sale)

How do you do this with only a 30Gb disk.  I just checked the blockchain size on my node and it is 30.1Gb.  The blockchain has gotten huge!

I was running a full node until AT&T's new contract throttled me back to 250GB/mo  >:(

the full blockchain is around 22GB.  you may still have the old blk* files around that were rendered obsolete a year or so ago

bitcoin consumes around 3-4TB upstream a month for me, with 700 connections

I am running a full node from here.

With that being said there are a lot of disincentives to run a node. It takes a long time to download the blockchain (it is over 18 GB now). Once the blockchain is downloaded it will take up a lot of bandwidth and CPU capacity.

Most people that run a full node today are people who wish to see Bitcoin succeed and believe in Bitcoin. Over the long term the capacity of the network in terms of TX per second will need to be increased in order to keep it from outgrowing itself and to allow for miners to receive sufficient block rewards to keep mining profitable.

When more TX per second are allowed on the network then the CPU and bandwidth needs of nodes will increase and the number of nodes will decrease. The solution to this is to give a financial incentive to run a full node. One possibility as to how to do this would be all nodes that have at least x connections would get y% of each block reward.

But I am, I even tell that under my nick. Edit: seems like I'm not telling that... I'm just telling others to do so. Anyway I run one.

Easy instructions for running a node like that would be appreciated. I guess there would be a a few dozen people doing that, since there is still capacity to run other, basic stuff like IRC there.

Download the source, follow the instructions in build-unix.md.  Turn off the wallet.

Upload the blockchain and use bitcoind -reindex or redownload it all and put listen=1 in the conf file and open port 8333..

$ sudo apt-get install bitcoind

* create ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf with "rpcuser=something" and "rpcpassword=somethingcomplex".

$ bitcoind -daemon

I use these guys to run a Trollcoin node for $2.50/month with their promo.
https://www.vultr.com/pricing/
The $5/month package is more than sufficient and they'll match your pre-payment up to $100, so I got 80 months of service for $100

This is for alt coins tho since I only get 15gigs storage at that price.

For those asking about RPi: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=633347.0

Lots of countries and providers are very tight when it comes to bandwidth.

For most people the only realistic option is to rent a private server and set one up that way. But a lot of people don't want to do that.

I've seen some people who have extra servers donate them as full nodes. I guess one problem is the lack of compensation.

I think over the long run most full nodes will be run on servers and/or dedicated machines.

I think that full nodes will need to be compensated once the amount of TXs increases enough.

I run a computer out of my home office that is connected via a DSL line.  I have been running a full bitcoin node for a few months and I figure that it hasn't cost me anything out of pocket, just my time to set it up and monitor it.  I was already running the computer 24/7 and have terabytes of disk storage and running the node seems to take a few percent of my CPU time and a few percent of my bandwidth.

I did run into two problems when I first opened up port 8333.  First, my router got horribly clogged up with connections, so I configured bitcoin core to limit the number of connections to 12. Second, I saw that other network applications such as web browsing and video watching slowed down. I fixed this problem by configuring a QoS policy in the computer running bitcoind that limited the upstream bandwidth of bitcoind to 20% of my DSL upload bandwidth.  This has no effect on the operation of the bitcoin network while doing normal transactions and receiving and relaying blocks.  It does prevent my network from clogging up if a Newbie is downloading the entire block chain and happens to latch onto my node.

I don't know how long this will be practical. I don't see the computer end as a significant cost as I will probably be getting a new computer well before the one I am using starts being overloaded by increasing bitcoin traffic. I am more concerned with network bandwidth, as my upload bandwidth is rather pathetic and it's not clear when it will be possible to get better network service. My local ISP is (slowly) adding fiber service to more of its customers.