What's the difference between a normal wallet and a node?

[kevin08]

What's the difference between a normal bitcoin core wallet and a bitcoin node?

What's the difference in settings between the two besides opening port 8333 for the node?

Is there a way to stop your node transmitting too much data for if your node's connection has limited bandwidth? I guess if too many wallets start downloading the whole blockchain through your node any data limit would be breached quickly.

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[unamis76]

Bitcoin Core is the software. Core can work as a Wallet and/or a Node. Same software, two different functionality that can work at the same time, or not. Does this answer your question?

I don't think there's a way to limit bandwidth usage in Core, you'd have to do that at the system level I think.

[kevin08]

Bitcoin Core is the software. Core can work as a Wallet and/or a Node. Same software, two different functionality that can work at the same time, or not. Does this answer your question?

I don't think there's a way to limit bandwidth usage in Core, you'd have to do that at the system level I think.

What settings do you have to alter to make Core work as a Node? I know wallets and nodes operate differently, and that you need to open port 8333 to let your node get more than 8 connections to other nodes, but there must be more settings that need changing. Otherwise everyone' wallet would operate as a node.

[unamis76]

Bitcoin Core is the software. Core can work as a Wallet and/or a Node. Same software, two different functionality that can work at the same time, or not. Does this answer your question?

I don't think there's a way to limit bandwidth usage in Core, you'd have to do that at the system level I think.

What settings do you have to alter to make Core work as a Node? I know wallets and nodes operate differently, and that you need to open port 8333 to let your node get more than 8 connections to other nodes, but there must be more settings that need changing. Otherwise everyone' wallet would operate as a node.

None, Core has the ability to work as a node straight out of the box. Everyone's wallet is a node, you just have to forward the right port and you're contributing.

[BurtW]

You can google "running a full node" for instructions.

You can google "limit bandwidth of bitcoin core" to learn how to limit the bandwidth.

I was looking at this today, and I have a question.  Instead of limiting the bandwidth what happens if I just use the -maxconnections switch?  Wouldn't that limit the number of connections to my full node and as a side effect reduce the bandwidth used?  Installing yet another program to limit the bandwidth seems a bit of a pain - but that is the way to do it on Windows according to the articles I read.

I notice about 20 GB per day outgoing when I run my full node "out of the box".

[smaxz]

you can limit the number of connections to your node/wallet with "maxconnections=10" in your bitcoin.conf file, but you dont want to go lower than 8 or 9 as it will hinder the functionality.

listen=0 is another setting to consider.

you should read the documentation that comes with your wallet, there is a lot of useful information at your disposal.

as for wallet/node, people tend to use the term interchangeably, a FULL node however requires a few more steps to fulfill the terms requirements.

[smaxz]

You can google "running a full node" for instructions.

You can google "limit bandwidth of bitcoin core" to learn how to limit the bandwidth.

I was looking at this today, and I have a question.  Instead of limiting the bandwidth what happens if I just use the -maxconnections switch?  Wouldn't that limit the number of connections to my full node and as a side effect reduce the bandwidth used?  Installing yet another program to limit the bandwidth seems a bit of a pain - but that is the way to do it on Windows according to the articles I read.

I notice about 20 GB per day outgoing when I run my full node "out of the box".

yes use maxconnections, try not to go below 10 though.

how many connections do you seem to be averaging with 20GB/day throughput?

[BurtW]

You can google "running a full node" for instructions.

You can google "limit bandwidth of bitcoin core" to learn how to limit the bandwidth.

I was looking at this today, and I have a question.  Instead of limiting the bandwidth what happens if I just use the -maxconnections switch?  Wouldn't that limit the number of connections to my full node and as a side effect reduce the bandwidth used?  Installing yet another program to limit the bandwidth seems a bit of a pain - but that is the way to do it on Windows according to the articles I read.

I notice about 20 GB per day outgoing when I run my full node "out of the box".

yes use maxconnections, try not to go below 10 though.

how many connections do you seem to be averaging with 20GB/day throughput?

8 in [standard]
30-40 out

I was thinking of limiting it to a total of 16 [8 in, 8 out] to see if that would reduce the bandwidth consumption to a more reasonable level.

[smaxz]

yeah for sure.. report back with stats if you can.

curious how effective this can be even though i've been doing it since forever.

[Jet Cash]

Surely if you want to limit bandwidth, just don't run the core all the time.

[shorena]

Surely if you want to limit bandwidth, just don't run the core all the time.

A build in limiter is coming with 0.12.

[BurtW]

Surely if you want to limit bandwidth, just don't run the core all the time.

A build in limiter is coming with 0.12.

Great news.  When is 0.12 slated to be released?

[cr1776]

Surely if you want to limit bandwidth, just don't run the core all the time.

A build in limiter is coming with 0.12.

Great news.  When is 0.12 slated to be released?

rc1 was just a few days ago (Sunday).  

I think the goal was by the end of January depending on how the testing goes.

[shorena]

Surely if you want to limit bandwidth, just don't run the core all the time.

A build in limiter is coming with 0.12.

Great news.  When is 0.12 slated to be released?

rc1 already is, cant be long.

-> https://bitcoin.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.12.0/test/

[sp00lin9]

You also have the option to compile Bitcoin core without a wallet if you're looking to create strictly a P2P node using the following:

Code:

./configure --disable-wallet

[cjmoles]

Question for clarity's sake:  When I download my Core software and run it straight out of the box, am I running a full node?  Also, if I upgraded to Core V0.12.0 will I also be running a full node straight away?  Or, will I have to make changes to my configuration file to make that happen?

[sp00lin9]

Question for clarity's sake:  When I download my Core software and run it straight out of the box, am I running a full node?  Also, if I upgraded to Core V0.12.0 will I also be running a full node straight away?  Or, will I have to make changes to my configuration file to make that happen?

Negative, It does not run as a full node without configuration straight out the box. From what i understand, It would need to be configured accordingly.

[achow101]

Question for clarity's sake:  When I download my Core software and run it straight out of the box, am I running a full node?  Also, if I upgraded to Core V0.12.0 will I also be running a full node straight away?  Or, will I have to make changes to my configuration file to make that happen?

Negative, It does not run as a full node without configuration straight out the box. From what i understand, It would need to be configured accordingly.

No, you are wrong. Bitcoin Core and all forks of it run as full nodes straight out of the box. A full node receives every block and every transaction and will validate every single one and relay them to its peers if they do verify. It does not require allowing incoming connections, simply having any connection to the network (including outbound ones) makes the node contributing and simply running the software is running a full node and contributing.

[sp00lin9]

Question for clarity's sake:  When I download my Core software and run it straight out of the box, am I running a full node?  Also, if I upgraded to Core V0.12.0 will I also be running a full node straight away?  Or, will I have to make changes to my configuration file to make that happen?

Negative, It does not run as a full node without configuration straight out the box. From what i understand, It would need to be configured accordingly.

No, you are wrong. Bitcoin Core and all forks of it run as full nodes straight out of the box. A full node receives every block and every transaction and will validate every single one and relay them to its peers if they do verify. It does not require allowing incoming connections, simply having any connection to the network (including outbound ones) makes the node contributing and simply running the software is running a full node and contributing.

May I ask where you confidently acquired this information?

The network configuration portion of Bitcoin's own website actually states the opposite of what you just said.

https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#network-configuration

[achow101]

May I ask where you confidently acquired this information?

The network configuration portion of Bitcoin's own website actually states the opposite of what you just said.

https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#network-configuration

Where does it say that to run a full node you must accept incoming connections? Perhaps you should read the entire page you linked, especially at the top where it defines what a full node is.

Accepting incoming connections has nothing to do with the full node party. A full node is defined as a node that fully verifies all the transactions and blocks it receives, and to do that it must also fully verify the entire blockchain. It is simply recommended and preferred that people accept incoming connections, but having outbound connections us still being a full node and contributing to the network and enforcing the consensus rules.

Read this: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Full_node