The best way to do would be to convert the actual Bitcoin UTXO database into a SQL database so you can search it.
This database is kept on every node but it is a LevelDB database that can only be accessed sequentially.
So you need a translation software to read it.
I made one myself in Java. It takes about 1 hour to convert the full UTXO to a MYSQL database. It's about 24GB large when only a few fields are saved (addresses, balance, block height, txid). It contains 162 million records as of today.

You can then do a quick search to see if a specific address is in the database.
If found you can easily calculate the balance by doing a select count(*).
Running the queries would need a pc with a very fast random access SSD and as much ram as you can spare (think 128 or 256GB).

There's probably a few projects on GitHub that convert the UTXO.

Does anybody have or had a GPU mining rig? And I wonder if any of you with lots of hashing power had tried to generate a Vanity bitcoin address via VanitySearch? I'm talking about those who have at least tens of GPUs or in the best case, hundreds of them. I also wonder if any of you have tried to generate a Vanity address by using powerful AWS servers? Is it possible to direct hashrates rented on Nicehash to generate a vanity Bitcoin address? I know my sentences are full of questions but I'm really curious. If you have tried none of them above, at least what's the longest Vanity address that you have generated?

I don't think ASIC miners can be used to find vanity addresses. They're build for only one specific task, and it would be too expensive to build a dedicated ASIC to find vanity addresses.

No. VanitySearch involves not only the hashing algorithm you mentioned (SHA-256) but also additional operations such as Base58 encoding or RIPEMD-160, which is used to convert the hashed data into a human-readable Bitcoin address format. While ASICs are highly optimized for specific tasks, including hashing, they may not be as well-suited for the additional operations involved in VanitySearch.

ASICs are designed for specific tasks and are commonly used for cryptocurrency mining, such as Bitcoin mining. They are optimized for high-speed computation of specific algorithms and are not general-purpose computing devices like CPUs or GPUs.

Upon reviewing the group’s history, we found that most accounts sold are related to the cryptocurrency industry or are influencer accounts.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/0*V3I_DNNmCgtIfbSj

According to the data on one such platform, it has processed over 1.3 million orders, with 20,000 people having used their services.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/0*Y_i4flxjSF7WF933

X seriously has a lot of work to do. Reading replies from a crypto related post is completely annoying lately. All you see are spam accounts either shilling fake tokens or sharing phishing links. I miss the old times when the engagement was organic with no annoying bots like it is right now.

Even when you try to follow trending topics or hashtags, all you see is phishing link or airdrop spam on the feed. They should borrow a left from reddit perhaps.

Those are some really cheap VPS, is the first time i read about Contabo, they have nice reviews in trust pilot, and I'm tempted now to get one VPS with them. I'm not sure if i will use it for running a BTC node, but other coins node could be a good option.

And thanks to NotATether for the remainder of the pruned nodes, i forgot that name and wasn't able to find the concept.

2 cores of what CPU? 3GB ram is a bit light but doable.
For under $70 a year it's not bad. If there is some sort of price guaranty. Do you want to be moving in 6 months because it's now $9.99 / month?
Have dealt with that a few times over the years.

Also, does that come with a dedicated public IP or are you behind a NAT?
If you are only going to be on TOR for the node it's not a big deal, if you want public access it's a different story.

Yeah, I can go dig around the site but I'm on mobile at the moment.

-Dave

But how can this topic got "high-risk" flag just because of some people without any proof ?!

I am not a node runner, but I think it was weekly that I saw when I went through an article 2 years ago about it. Likely 5 gigabyte or more every week was what that I saw.

I went through this article just now: https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#minimum-requirements

When the full blockchain download was still around 340 gigabytes, the monthly download usage specified in the article was 200 gigabyte or more monthly.

It is worth knowing that downloading the full blockchain requires over 500 gigabyte of blockchain download. Also that you will need like 5 to 10 gigabyte (if it is not more now) of data to keep downloading the lastest blocks everyday.

A NODE is a physical device such as the computer or a device of its equivalent that participates in the confirmation and storage of Bitcoin data. In essence, this is to mean that, any computer device that is used in Bitcoin confirmation and data storage is a node right?

Anyone can run a node, you just need to run Bitcoin Core.

I am giving 5 free review copies for 5 old account in Bitcointalk:
- Only use for testing purpose, not allow reveal it for any reason or use it for make any kind of money.
If want to use it to make money please order/buy the casino crypto winning formula.

- Must give/write review within 5 days after I send the casino winning formula.

Please send me a private message if you really want to become the "tester".

Thank you.
Winning Joy

"trust" system of bitcointalk is plain wrong !
I willing to "prove" with admin mods that my product is correct like as is promote, how can my trust score is negative by some stupid low level user ?
It is just so unfair !

By the way, I checked Windscribe's R.O.B.E.R.T page and discovered that along many features that includes block list, they also have one that I don't like: Competitors (Other VPNs). When you enable R.O.B.E.R.T on windscribe, they block all competitor VPNs and this is their explanation:

How fair is that? Should I remove them from the list of Privacy focused cheap monthly VPNs?

Crypto

This list blocks all cryptocurrency exchanges, crypto news sites and cryptomining services that mine cryptocurrency in your browser.

firstly devs should be self sufficiently funded by doing what all bitcoiners do. invest in holding bitcoin.. and then devs coding bitcoin for bitcoiners benefit to get BITCOIN adoption/utility.. instead of being sponsored to edit bitcoin to be more 'other system friendly' and push people off the network

secondly
the core maintainers.. are deemed as the governing center of a monetary system. if the political whims of core devs require FIAT outside funding where devs cant even use the system they govern to make their own income. then it shows they are not interested in making bitcoin better for their own interests and befits bitcoiners.. and instead willing to be sellouts for FIAT wallstreet interests
(imagine if US treasury didnt want to control the treasury for american citizens benefit. but instead treasurers/politicians relied on yuan and made policy that benefits chinese institutional interests)

if devs cannot be self sufficient in a monetary system they have control of, which they change and edit.. they are failing themselves

im not suggesting core devs break the supply limit, add more coin and force mining pools to reward core devs . im suggesting core devs invest a sum and then make bitcoin better for bitcoiners and get their investment value to grow due to making bitcoin better for everyone.. instead of making it more annoying, softened, less easier for everyone.. but pushed to only want to operate for the benefit of institutional desires who pay them

(imagine CEO-employee's of any company invested in their own company. they would be more incentivised to make that company work better to then cause their investment to grow. instead of asking to be bailed out via other means outside the model)

Since the cost does not include enough space for a full node how much does it cost to go to 1TB for storage?
It's not much work to do a quick pre-install of BTC and then bill you at a profit for bandwidth overages and storage overages.

Remember, most if not all hosts give you X bandwidth and even if you are doing your initial sync from a local node to your local node and never touching the internet that bandwidth still counts against your monthly total.

It's quite difficult to find ASNs less populated than that. IPs under the same ASNs doesn't mean that they are under the same datacenters; they can also be among a bunch of different datacenters that are geographically located in different locations.

Isn't "SRC-20" from Bitcoin Stamps?

If it actually is, then the data that uses this protocol is stored in the part of the block where the transactions reside, not in the part where the witness data reside. They can't be pruned, but Bitcoin Stamps is also more expensive to use.

Although, some users/collectors might choose Bitcoin Stamps over Ordinals because of, OP's words, "digital permanence".

I was reading the Bitcoin book on github

Help enlighten me on what the bip 39 is?.

Tap root is a significant upgrade with the adoption of bitcoin core version 0.21.0. It introduces several improvements, including enhanced privacy, improved smart contract flexibility and increased efficiency
Tap root address is a pay to public key hash (p2pkh) address that utilizes the new taproot script. Tap root addresses provide increased privacy by allowing multiple parties to collaborate on complex transactions without revealing the details of the transactions script. It also enables more advanced smart contract capabilities. With taproot complex smart contracts can be represented as a single public key, known as taproot key. This shows that more sophisticated transactions can be implemented simply using taproot addresses

Installating bitcoin core requires several steps which may yet depending on the operating system involved
The first step however is downloading bitcoin core software by visiting the official bitcoin website (bitcoincore.org) choose the appropriate version for your operating system
Once downloaded proceed the installation process by following the on screen instructions
- initial synchronization; after the installation is complete the software will begin the process of synchronization with the bitcoin network , which involves downloading the entire blockchain history. Although this may take time depending on the speed of the internet and the current size of the blockchain
-secure the wallet; It is required to encrypt your wallet with a strong passphrase for added security,
Also regularly check for new versions and security updates by keeping up to date with the latest releases

Fairly little. Decentralization should take into account how redundant our nodes are, as opposed to how many nodes are there. I suppose it wouldn't matter that much if there are tons of nodes in certain areas or datacenter.

It is always a bad idea to FUND Bitcoin Core developers directly.  It is very likely the developers will become biased at some point.

Can I use it on a company computer?

I don't think I'll be caught dead using it though and how low are these chance of finding a block though?

Based on the experience of those who are miners, I would like to know the following:

What is the best ASIC miner for those with an energy cost of $0.20 KW/h?