Worth running a node if you're a hodl'er?

[Solo6R]

After a couple of days of syncing, I've finally got my full node setup on a 1TB SSD. Feels pretty liberating to finally see the green power icon/switch on sparrow instead of the yellow public one. Granted I'm still using a CEX so the anonymity benefits of running a node are mute, it still feels pretty neat to be able to verify my own transactions, and even better I can verify others and help out the network! Aside from the information window with things like connections, block height, etc, etc. Is there any neat bits on Bitcoin Core to look at? Things like how many transactions my node has personally verified or anything?

Anyways, just wanted to share with you guys that I'm doing my part and we've got another full node online! I literally have no one else in my life that would A.) care, or B.) even know what I'm talking about.

[Cricktor]

Congrats!

I can't remember having read if your node runs on Windows, MacOS or Linux. I want to encourage you to explore capabilities and what data you can query from your node.

There's usually an executable called bitcoin-cli which is used on the command line. If you're not familiar with the command line, well, how about to start getting to explore new things?

For a start you could execute bitcoin-cli help on the command line. Next could be bitcoin-cli help <insert a command your Core node understands>. You may find a rabbit hole...

Read the help of those RPC commands that catch your interest and you may have more questions to talk about.


Be careful if your Sparrow wallet has instructed Bitcoin Core to create an accompanying wallet to reflect yours. When this isn't a watch-only wallet, don't do stupid things while playing with RPC commands of your Core. (I don't think you're in trouble, because likely your Coldcard secures the private keys and your associated Sparrow wallet is just the watch-only part of it.

[Jon_Hodl]

I use a Cold Card Q and Sparrow, and just HODL what I buy twice a month. Is it pointless to run a node if you're not constantly transacting?

No, it's not pointless to run your own node. Running your own node gives you the option to increase your own privacy by not linking all of your addresses together via your xPub key.

When I transfer off of a CEX and onto my Cold Card, the private node wouldn't benefit me at all either would it?

The CEX knows the address that you send to but if you're connecting to public nodes via Sparrow (yellow toggle in lower right corner), then the real risk of privacy loss is that you're giving away your xPub to random servers. When you generate a brand new wallet (seed Phrase) and you only connect to your own node with that wallet, only your own node will know that those new addresses all belong to the same wallet. That's the most important reason to run your own node imho. https://www.whatisbitcoin.com/culture/reasons-to-run-a-bitcoin-node

Seems you'd only get the transactional privacy of a private node when sending out of your wallet via sparrow, correct?

Yes but one of the main reasons to run your own node is to not give away your xPub key to any random bitcoin node out there.

So I guess aside from contributing to the BTC network, which I'm not opposed to at all, is there really any privacy benefits, or benefits at all to someone like me who transfers off a CEX maybe once every 2 months?

Yes. Privacy is a network and thus has a network effect. Running your own node with substantially increase your own privacy while also marginally increase the privacy of other bitcoiners. The more of us who run bitcoin and transact privately, the more privacy we all have as a network of users. https://www.whatisbitcoin.com/privacy/how-to-use-bitcoin-anonymously

After the initial downloading of the data, how taxing and/or "harmful" to your system is running the node?

Not in my experience.

Can it just run in the background and pay no mind to it?

Yes but I don't know as much about a desktop like this since I run mine on dedicated hardware (Raspberry Pi)

I know running a miner would impact performance and incur power costs, but does running a node (Bitcoin Core) tax the hardware like that and "hurt" any of the components overtime the same way a miner would burning up GPU's?

No. It's pretty light. I run a node on a Raspberry Pi and it works great. I download 1 mb block every ~10 minutes and upload that same block to other peers. It doesn't take up much bandwidth or anything.

Also, I notice a lot of the nodes are utilizing an .onion address for added privacy. Is this also something one would suggest?

Yes, I would suggest that you run your node via Tor.

How difficult is it to setup an tor server, and is that even worth doing on a non-server environment PC?

I can't speak to this directly but running a bitcoin node on Tor is pretty easy with some of the node services like Umbrel and Start9. I use both. https://www.whatisbitcoin.com/technical/how-to-run-a-bitcoin-node

I'm not typically one to use things like VPN's, or TOR browsers for privacy as I don't really care who knows what YT videos I'm watching, or what games I'm playing (This is a gaming rig, if that's worth mentioning)

FWIW, you should always use a VPN for online browsing and protecting your basic privacy. Your data is being monetized without your knowledge or consent and you're not getting any of the money. Don't just give your online ID fingerprint away for free. Make them work for it.