Bitcoin Forum

Hi All,

I used to run 2 Bitcoin nodes, one on my PC and on Microsoft Azure platform (I had a free 3 year Azure subscription for upto a certain amount of dollars worth of credit). I feel the blockchain size is constantly increasing by a lot and that connection speeds aren't great in a place where I live. I do have 4G networks but they aren't as cheap to buy. On Microsoft Azure I have ran out of disk space as well. I found running a node a good go as a hobby, but it's probably nice for larger companies and places where hard drive and internet is cheaper to run.

What's your take on it?

Storage is cheap. the entire blockchain is only 83GB. it might get more expensive to host on virtual servers but it will get cheaper there as well.

Price for total storage space is not quite high even for virtual servers and talking about speed they have really high speed of connection. I have few virtual servers which only cost around 5$ per month, so i think running bitcoin node can still be considered not so expensive. However i am not running any bitcoin nodes on those servers. Running on my laptop is out of option with only 3 mbps speed and quite low processing capacity  ;D

The cost of storage will only go down, so I don't really mind the relatively big size of the blockchain, but I'm not running a node myself.
It would be useful if someone could share how much they're spending on a virtual server that they're running a full node on.

mobile broadband is not suppose to be used as 24/7 streaming
using microsoft azure/amazon aws is not really decentralizing things..
making neither of them bitcoins real use-case scenario

but considering a home internet package using a computer, (the intended vision of decentralization)

a $350 computer(with 2tb hard drive included) today can take care of bitcoins known proposals for well well over 5 years, knowing most people upgrade computers ever 5 years anyway
remembering that bitcoin had 1mb rule for years.. if you look at the prices of a computer with atleast 500gb 7 years ago.. the price remains the same

as for internet prices, even basic ADSL / cable packages are ample speeds.
its just the case of finding the ISP that isnt crippling you with usage limits thinking you are only going to look at twitter for an hour a day.
these days ISP's shouldnt be crippling usage limits, but if yours is.. find another ISP

I can still run a node on Azure for under $150 / month. The most expensive variable cost is not the disk but the network bandwidth.

and this actually proves that datacentres will fail and home computing and home internet will win.. monthly costs are much cheaper to run from home.

I run nodes on old Dell Optiplex 755's (released around 2008) that I got for free from a business that was upgrading. I spent maybe $50 each on a 1TB hard drive and loaded Ubuntu on them then set them up at friends and families houses.

I do have two VPS's setup but they are too small for a bitcoin node so I use them for Litecoin and Feathercoin at the moment. They cost me $10 a month, each.

I've been thinking of running a node from my home, but I wonder if it's really worth it to do so?
As in, is it really needed for the network?

I have no datalimit, fast connection and a spare machine that doesn't require too much power (plus have solar panels).

Yes, if you can, do it. Thats how the network works. If we all switched off our nodes, Bitcoin wouldn't exist.

Is the world going to notice that you setup a node? No, but all of us together actively make up the network.

I hadn't imagined someone would try running a node without a desktop with a large HDD and a fast DSL connection. If you're the kind of person who doesn't bother switching off the computer at night, running a node is then virtually free.

I don't think it's getting costlier, in general. You can always search for VPS providers with cheap rates and promotions, they appear frequently. You have to change hosts in order to keep costs down sometimes... You eventually manage to be able to run a node for cheap one way or another.

Another option is running a node at home, which can be even cheaper in the long term. Get a Raspberry Pi, an old hard drive, a case for it, and you're good to go.


As far as my experience goes, I have more difficulty getting a cheap host with 80+GB of storage than a cheap host with loads of traffic and bandwidth. And yes, you can run a node for wayyy cheaper than 150$/month :D

I don't see why this should even be a question. It is common sense that over time, running a Bitcoin node is going to be costlier with resource usage (disregarding the changes in price for bandwidth and per GB of storage). I'd suggest running a node your home if you have unlimited bandwidth. You could limit it to something low like 2 - 4 Mbps upload speed (depending on your plan) with software (e.g. wondershaper for Linux).

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My node has about 40-60 connections, is capped at 2 Mbps and spends around 300-400 GB of upload bandwidth per month.

Probably not something for me then (see my previous post) if it's around 300-400 GB of upload bandwidth per month.
I do have an unlimited plan, but I'm pretty sure it has a 'fair use' clause in the contract.

Might be a good idea to try it for a month and just see if they send me an email or limit my usage :)

With 50 connected nodes, my bitcoin server upload runs around 1.5GB/day.  However, if new nodes want historical blocks (blocks older than 7 days), this can quickly balloon to 15-20 GB/day.  Bitcoin 0.13 has an option to limit the upload size over a 24-hour period, so this can help reduce the cost.  However, SPV nodes are disconnected when this limit is reached (which you may or may not care about).

when i started running my node in December last year the space requirement was around 60GB and its about 85GB now so it aint that bad really.  and i dont notice much in the way of increased electricity either

I haven't yet had any cost of running a node at all.

83GB is no joke for most users. The blockchain is also getting larger and larger every year so running a node will get only harder. Some of you say something like "oh storage is getting cheaper so it is not a concern", but it is already a concern. The number of nodes are falling.

There are alternative ways to incentivize people to run nodes. One of these is thru Spreadcoin. They have a system called proof of Bitcoin node. I have not read into it deeply but it might be a good solution to the problem.

It really comes down how you set-up your own node. You could implement a higher min-relay policy, in addition to limiting your own speed & number of connections to lower thresholds. There are also alternatives, such as running in blocks only mode or setting up upload targets.

You can't really know until you try!

People are forgetting things like:
1) Initial sync cost and time.
2) Lack of incentive of running a node (unless you feel strongly about decentralization).
3) Time request to fix problems once something goes corrupt (e.g. having to run a reindex).

If you are from a middle income group in a third world country, running a node will not be a option. This is due to the running cost and the lack of fast broadband connections. Most of these countries have very high costs for bandwidth and it is also capped at very low amounts. { 50 to 100 GB per month }

I have lived and worked in African countries and they are far behind the rest of the world with broadband access and it's prohibitively expensive. ^hmmmm^

then just don't have so many connections.

lets use laudas numbers and assume 60 nodes=400gb a month(his top numbers)
meaning just 6 nodes=40gb usage a month
(about the same bandwidth upload as it would be to livestream yourself for 2 hours a day at SD quality or 1 hour a day at HD)

even with new consensus rules in the future.
you can adjust how many connections you have accordingly
thats the beauty of being a bitcoin full node. you can set your connection limits too. so dont be scared

Well it is obvious that you'll need to allocate extra money every month to be able to operate a full node. And I'm guessing that people on here who do have Bitcoin core running all day have more than 1 computer to work with. I tried running core when I first got into Bitcoin and found out that it slowed down my computer quite a bit making it impossible to run any other resource intensive programs.