Bitseed alternative

[OmegaStarScream]

I wanted to buy a hardware node from Bitseed but apparently, the site is not functional and according to their Twitter, they have been off since June.

Does anyone know any good alternatives? (preferably from experience). Having LN as well is a plus, but not necessary.

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[Dabs]

Their hardware node looked like a Raspberry Pi. Maybe you can build one yourself? All you'd need after the board and software is enough space, so just attach an external USB drive to it, there are plenty with 500GB to 2TB of space.

Personally, I'd go grab some old used or refurbished server or workstation and use that. Those things can be as cheap as $150 (without the SSD / HDD) and come with more than 4 to 8 GB RAM, Dual to Quad core Xeon Intel processors. The cons would be they are physically bigger and require a little more power (but not that much more.)

The pros would be, some of them come with dual power supplies (and dual everything else) ...

[ABCbits]

How about https://keys.casa? Their product is quite expensive IMO, but
1. most of their code is open source
2. they promise you'll get customer support
3. the CTO is Jameson Lopp

I never use their product, so i encourage you to DYOR

[DaveF]

Lightning in a box:
https://lightninginabox.co/product/lightning-in-a-box/
Bitcoin and Lightning node ready to go.

If you want to go lower power:
https://lightninginabox.co/product/raspiblitz-raspberry-pi-lightning-node/

They also have other options:
https://lightninginabox.co/shop/

-Dave

[charlie137]

theres also raspiblitz with ln support for rpi https://github.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz

[DaveF]

Just wanted to bump this for Christmas pricing.

If you follow the links here: https://github.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz for what you need and shop around a bit. Between Amazon, adafruit.com and some other places having sales you can probably save some money on building your own.

With that being said, it really depends on where you are in the world. Amazon.de in Germany has (or had) much better pricing then amazon.fr on some things. They do vary prices locally. But if you have time to check and shop you can same some money.

-Dave

[DaveF]

Just more of an FYI, if you do the build that is discussed there is an issue with the fanshim/lcd.

https://github.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz/issues/898

The last comment here seems to be a fix:

https://github.com/rootzoll/raspiblitz/issues/796
(removes the fan control software just lets it run all the time)
Figured this might save some people some time when looking for the solution.

-Dave

[DaveF]

So I did a bit of an experiment based on what I said about getting the parts for less.
Now, overspent because I am going to be using the Pi for something else.
But, I ordered what was on the Raspiblitz list (with some upgrades)
Once everything was in.....
Took about an hour to put it all together since I had to go looking around for a tool to take the case apart / put it back together.
Also burned the SD card during that time.

Plugged it into my router and started it up.
Took very little time until I got to the chain download. Chose torrent and let it run.
I also did the shimfan fix that I posted about above (Purged Plymouth).
Torrent took about 8 hours +/- a bit was not hovering over it.
Did a reboot and then it started the rest of the blockchain download. The torrent only gets you 89% of the way there.

That finished up overnight between New Years Eve and New Years Day.
Reboot and finished answering the rest of the questions for the setup and done.
Added some BTC to my channel and poof done.
Only have 1 channel open and I still have to open the ports in the firewall but it's done.
Time was a little over a day or so on a fast internet connection. Actual time of working on it was probably under 2 hours.

-Dave

[DaveF]

Followed by........"Well, shit that sucks"



-Dave

[DaveF]

Fee like I am talking to myself a bit here in this thread. But Casa announced earlier today that they will no longer be shipping the Casa Node but will be open sourcing it.

https://blog.keys.casa/casas-focus-on-bitcoin-security/

So, it looks like your only choice for a "node in a box" for now is going to be https://lightninginabox.co/

Yeah, building it yourself is not that big a deal but sometimes it's nice to just get something in a box that you plug in and have work.

-Dave

[Dabs]

If you can make a little profit out of it (or make sure you don't incur losses), then it's a viable project to continue; to market. There are altcoins out there providing "staking boxes" and they are all nicely packaged raspberry pis for sale around $100 equivalent, which is more or less, at cost, including all the hardware, a nice case, memory card, power supply and pre-installed OS and software.

[DaveF]

If you can make a little profit out of it (or make sure you don't incur losses), then it's a viable project to continue; to market. There are altcoins out there providing "staking boxes" and they are all nicely packaged raspberry pis for sale around $100 equivalent, which is more or less, at cost, including all the hardware, a nice case, memory card, power supply and pre-installed OS and software.

The biggest issue is the drive space & power.
You need a good SSD or a really good spinning drive and a more powerful RPi to make a BTC node. Or a micro PC.
The cost is going to put you in the $190 range more or less before your time. Just look at what is needed for the minimal Raspiblitz.
You can get away with a lot less on most alts.

-Dave