Finally setting up a full node

[HCP]

Couple of notes to add to what ETFbitcoin has said:

#1 I see backup wallet feature but I do not see any restore option.
Since there are no restore option then how do we do that?
Is this a correct way:
Imagine I have a wallet.dat file from Electrum. Do I just copy and past it in the main directory and replace the current .DAT file?

Firstly... NO! wallet files from Electrum are NOT compatible with Bitcoin Core! You cannot use a wallet.dat file from Electrum.

Also, do not try and restore the wallet.dat file while Bitcoin Core is running. There is a very real potential to corrupt the file. So, when restoring, you need to ensure that Bitcoin Core is not running, then copy the backup version of the file into the data directory, then start Bitcoin Core.

#2 In Electrum we can create as many wallet as we can using the 12 word seeds and extended seeds.
In Bitcoin core a full node is one wallet?

Bitcoin Core actually does support using multiple wallet files (since v0.15.0.1)... but only the first wallet specified with the -wallet command will be displayed in the GUI. However you will be able to interact with ALL of them from either the commandline (bitcoin-cli) or using the console in the GUI (Help -> Debug Window -> Console).

Refer: https://bitcoin.org/en/release/v0.15.0.1#multi-wallet-support

#3 How can I create a multiSign wallet? I do not see any feature. I think a full node is only one wallet if the #2 is correct.

Multisig isn't quite as "tidy" as in a wallet like Electrum, it currently requires a lot of manual commands. You don't create a specific "Multisig" wallet as such... but you can create Multisig addresses in any Bitcoin Core wallet by using the createmultsig command (again, using bitcoin-cli or the console]

createmultisig nrequired ["key",...] ( "address_type" )

Creates a multi-signature address with n signature of m keys required.
It returns a json object with the address and redeemScript.

Arguments:
1. nrequired                    (numeric, required) The number of required signatures out of the n keys.
2. "keys"                       (string, required) A json array of hex-encoded public keys
     [
       "key"                    (string) The hex-encoded public key
       ,...
     ]
3. "address_type"               (string, optional) The address type to use. Options are "legacy", "p2sh-segwit", and "bech32". Default is legacy.

Result:
{
  "address":"multisigaddress",  (string) The value of the new multisig address.
  "redeemScript":"script"       (string) The string value of the hex-encoded redemption script.
}

As for spending from Multisig addresses... you can see the process in this walkthru: https://github.com/anders94/bitcoin-2-of-3-multisig

#4 Is there any easy way to "Send to many" option.
In Electrum we can just paste the addresses separating by comma with the amount in each line but here we do not have such feature. The one we have is click and fill the form which is not much user friendly. Is there any other way?

probably scripting and using the commandline... or the console, but you can't really script that, you could however generate the sendmany command using a script and copy/paste that to the console.

#5 If I use the encrypt wallet feature then this means the current wallet.dat file gets encrypted. How do I recover it? Follow #1 if my explanation is correct and in this case I will need the password phrase?

It's the same process as Electrum... the GUI will automatically prompt you for the passphrase when it requires access to the encrypted data... you "unlock" the wallet using the walletpassphrase command when you're trying to use the CLI or console.

#6 If someone want to take the full node from me. I give them everything except the wallet.dat file? I mean which are the files I am okay to give them if they want to get the files from me to run their own full node?

Just give them the "blocks" and "chainstate" folders... they don't require anything else.

#7 This full node is of-course helping the Bitcoin Network and I am happy with that.

Are you really "helping the Bitcoin Network" tho? Simply running Bitcoin Core is not enough. Is your node actually configured to allow incoming connections? If it is not... you're not really helping.

Refer to the "Network Configuration" section of "Running a Full Node": https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#network-configuration

[AB de Royse777]

Thanks to both HCP and ETFbitcoin especially to HCP. I will need some times to have all this to learn. I have one more question which I think you guys missed.

Shall I save a copy of the entire node before I play with the system or it's not a big deal? I imagine to make a copy of the entire node will also take a long time.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers :-)

[HCP]

That depends on what you mean by "play with the system"...

If you're not trying to manipulate blocks or other data files, then I don't see how you can do anything that would really warrant needing a backup. In any case, if anything goes really bad, you can always simply delete all the data files/blocks/chainstate etc and then simply re-sync...

However, if you have plenty of space (like a spare ~260Gigs laying around) and feel like backing it all up... it won't hurt.

Making a full backup takes as long as it takes to copy the ~260Gigs to your backup location... whatever that might be (external drive, internal drive, network storage etc)

[AB de Royse777]

That depends on what you mean by "play with the system"...

If you're not trying to manipulate blocks or other data files, then I don't see how you can do anything that would really warrant needing a backup. In any case, if anything goes really bad, you can always simply delete all the data files/blocks/chainstate etc and then simply re-sync...

However, if you have plenty of space (like a spare ~260Gigs laying around) and feel like backing it all up... it won't hurt.

Making a full backup takes as long as it takes to copy the ~260Gigs to your backup location... whatever that might be (external drive, internal drive, network storage etc)

LOL not that what I meant. I will basically try to get to know with those command line things how they work etc etc. It's more like exploring the entire system and getting to know the features.

My drive is 2T so space is not an issue.

Thanks for your input again. I will come back if I face any issue.

Cheers :-)

[Carlton Banks]

LOL not that what I meant. I will basically try to get to know with those command line things how they work etc etc. It's more like exploring the entire system and getting to know the features.

You're unlikely to break the blocks db just learning the basic commands, but there are blocks commands cli that could potentially mess it up (invalidateblock for instance)

My drive is 2T so space is not an issue.

Put any backup on a different disk, then both disks would need to stop working at the same time to force you into total re-sync

[Artemis3]

I just rebuilt my Linux node machine recently. A full DL of the blockchain took a full week.  Fortunately storage is so cheep that I was able to go with a 3 Terabyte HD. That should hold me for a few years. I like having a dedicated machine like this. I usually shop on a different computer and spend from my node for additional privacy.   

Thanks for contributing to the network's strength and resilience!

My node finally finished syncing yesterday, i started syncing at the end of December, syncing mostly at nighttime. Now that is synced it doesn't bother much to leave it running; but during syncing the I/O access to the harddrive was insane. I still run bitcoind it with ionice -c3 just in case...

[Carlton Banks]

during syncing the I/O access to the harddrive was insane

You can arrange the data directories in a way that minimises that

• Set the bitcoind parameter -datadir to your fastest disk, preferably a disk that's not the main OS disk (e.g. a SATA/M.2/PCI SSD based SSD)
• Set the bitcoind parameter -blocksdir to a slower disk with loads of space, again, not your OS disk (i.e. a regular mechanical HDD)

So ideally that involves 1 fast disk for the OS, 1 fast disk for the datadir, and 1 slow disk for the blocks. But it will speed things up noticeably.


Another syncing quickly tip: set the -dbcache parameter to something like dbcache=6000 or dbcache=8000, assuming you have that much RAM to spare

[Artemis3]

during syncing the I/O access to the harddrive was insane

You can arrange the data directories in a way that minimises that

• Set the bitcoind parameter -datadir to your fastest disk, preferably a disk that's not the main OS disk (e.g. a SATA/M.2/PCI SSD based SSD)
• Set the bitcoind parameter -blocksdir to a slower disk with loads of space, again, not your OS disk (i.e. a regular mechanical HDD)

So ideally that involves 1 fast disk for the OS, 1 fast disk for the datadir, and 1 slow disk for the blocks. But it will speed things up noticeably.


Another syncing quickly tip: set the -dbcache parameter to something like dbcache=6000 or dbcache=8000, assuming you have that much RAM to spare

Thank you, i used -dbcache=4096 all this time, the main bottleneck was the bandwidth, but now that it synced its fine.

[Lauda]

I just rebuilt my Linux node machine recently. A full DL of the blockchain took a full week.  Fortunately storage is so cheep that I was able to go with a 3 Terabyte HD. That should hold me for a few years. I like having a dedicated machine like this. I usually shop on a different computer and spend from my node for additional privacy.  

Weak connection or weak hardware. Last time I checked on a dedicated machine it took me maybe half a day for a full sync (probably less).

[RodeoX]

I just rebuilt my Linux node machine recently. A full DL of the blockchain took a full week.  Fortunately storage is so cheep that I was able to go with a 3 Terabyte HD. That should hold me for a few years. I like having a dedicated machine like this. I usually shop on a different computer and spend from my node for additional privacy.   

Thanks for contributing to the network's strength and resilience!

My node finally finished syncing yesterday, i started syncing at the end of December, syncing mostly at nighttime. Now that is synced it doesn't bother much to leave it running; but during syncing the I/O access to the harddrive was insane. I still run bitcoind it with ionice -c3 just in case...

When it's syncing it's like Damn, this thing is going to catch fire running like that! Once it does sync it's like, well now it doesn't do anything. I miss syncing.

Weak connection or weak hardware. Last time I checked on a dedicated machine it took me maybe half a day for a full sync (probably less).

Both! It is an old beat up Dell that is basically a Frankenstein monster.  IMO, a node needs to be secure, but not pretty or fast. I know I could set-up my router to get more connections. I'm just not in a hurry.