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Obviously running a full node yourself is going to be the most private and secure way, but blockchain.info does not store anything on their servers, therefore, if you forget your password, you can't do anything but sigh in regret of not backing it up properly.
What steps are involved in running my own full node?
Download and install Bitcoin Core. Let it fully sync, that is, download full blockchain from peers (other nodes it is connected to). If you shutdown Bitcoin Core, you will have to download all the new blocks mined when your core wasn't active.
* Some firewalls block incoming connections to your Core and incoming connections are needed if you want to share/send blocks & transaction to other nodes. For using it as a wallet, you only need outgoing connection.
Are they are advantages aside from the one you mentioned?
Full validation - it means you will validate blocks yourself, rather than trusting a third party. You can also contribute to network by validating blocks and sharing blocks & transactions you received to other nodes (if you consider it as an advantage).
A node is usually a computer that is an exit point for blockchain ledger? I don't know what a node is with regard to blockchain; I only know of nodes as entry/exit points in non-blockchain enviroments. Please enlighten me. Thanks
No, a node is not an exit point for blockchain point because blockchain is not something nodes connect to. A blockchain is a group of valid blocks and blocks contain valid transactions and a reference to previous block.
A node is a computer which is connected to other nodes(computers) to receive/send data, in case of Bitcoin, blocks and transactions. All nodes on the Bitcoin network has same blockchain. A node receives transaction and blocks from other nodes it is connected to, check if received blocks are valid according to built in consensus rules and if they are built on longest chain (chain with greatest proof-of-work). If true, node will accept it by adding those blocks on top of existing blockchain and relay those valid blocks and transaction to other nodes. If invalid, reject them.
When you sign up for blockchain.info you are given a 12 word recovery phrase, using this phrase you can import your wallet into any bip39 supporting wallet, or blockchain.info itself.
Is this known as the seed?
I don't know what the seed/private keys actually is or means or where to loacte it within a blockchain.info wallet? Explain pls.
A seed, which is also referred to as BIP39 seed, is a set of words, usually 12 words, which is used to generate all your addresses and corresponding private keys. Private keys are instead a secret number. It can be in many formats, but to make it easier for importing, private keys are shown in wallet importing format(WIF). It either starts with 5 and is 51 characters (uncompressed) or starts with K or L and is 52 characters (compressed).
When you create an account in Blockchain.info, you will be asked to write down seed of your wallet. If you haven't written down your seed, go to "Security Center and click "Backup Phrase"(or Phrase Backup?). You will be shown 4 words at a time. Write it down
in exact order without mistake. You WON'T be able to recover your wallet if there is a misspell, misplace of word or wrong word in your written "seed". I also read somewhere it your seed is only shown once, so be "extra" sure when backing up if this the case. I haven't completed all steps, so I am not sure about it. If you are afraid of loosing your seed, don't complete the process and only write down your seed and close the window. Do it once more to verify if your seed is EXACTLY same (order, words & spellings) as shown.
If you have more than one wallet, you need to find out which seed is needed for which addresses. For that, click "Settings" -> "Addresses" -> "Manage". To see used addresses, click "Show" in "Used Addresses" section and click "Ok" when warning is shown. See
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1994189.msg19906492#msg19906492 for images. Give him a tip if it's helpful!
If blockchain.info closes shop or gets wiped out I will always be able to access my blockchain wallet elsewhere?
Yes. You will be able to recover Bitcoin in your addresses related to the seed you have. If you have seed of wallet #1 and want to recover wallet #2, you won't be able to do it! Seed of wallet #1 only recovers addresses and private keys in wallet #1. So triple-verify whenever you do something!
Please correct me if I am wrong or tell me if I missed any! If you have seen familiar text here, it is not a copy-paste. I wrote what I understood. But it is possible some statements may have been similar or even same and it is probably because I used their* posts as reference to verify if what I said is correct and may have been influenced by their words/statements or writing style when I wrote..
* achow101, theymos, DannyHamilton, Bitcoin Wiki, Bitcoin.org, Bitcoin Stack Exchange, Github and lastly Blockchain.info
