Should I run my node all the time I am online?

[Jet Cash]

I've been running a couple of full nodes for a few years now, and I just use them to maintain wallets. It tend to fire them up daily, and then shut them down when the chain has sync'd. Would it help to preserve Bitcoin integrity if I left one of them running all the time I am online?

[jackg]

If you can leave one running and it won't affect your bandwidth and you don't care of the energy costs/aren't paying them (tbf they're fairly negligible if it's a laptop running linux) then yes it helps to propagate the chain. But if you're not able to leave it running there are many more nodes that can handle the task in the network and if your ping speed is low or you have few connections then it might not matter so much.

There are currently 11000 nodes, if you feel your vote won't make much of a difference then there might not be a point to run it unless you can throw it on in the background and it doesn't affect anything.

Current network state can be found on bitnodes.earn.com (which I can't copy and paste for some reason 🙄).

[figmentofmyass]

I've been running a couple of full nodes for a few years now, and I just use them to maintain wallets. It tend to fire them up daily, and then shut them down when the chain has sync'd. Would it help to preserve Bitcoin integrity if I left one of them running all the time I am online?

in theory, yes. bitcoin depends on full node redundancy---without sufficient honest nodes uploading transactions, the network would be centralized and insecure. in practice, your node isn't gonna make a huge difference, so if there is a question of limited resources (bandwidth, electricity) i wouldn't worry about it.

[Jet Cash]

I'm still punting between restaurants, and using their WiFi, so bandwidth and power are factored into the price of my coffee. Running a node doesn't seem to make much difference to my surfing and web maintenance either. If it helps the network, then I'm happy to do it, even though its effect might be negligible. If a WiFi provider leaves the ports open, then I assume that he has no objection to my running a node.

I really started this thread to encourage others to run their own nodes. It improves your security and convenience in my opinion, and we need to support the Bitcoin structure as we enter a challenging decade for crypto and banking.

[LoyceV]

I'm still punting between restaurants, and using their WiFi, so bandwidth and power are factored into the price of my coffee.

How many connections do you get in such a short time? I can imagine not many other clients download data from you, if you're only available for (say) half an hour at a time.

[jackg]

Similar to what loyce said, have you thought of connecting through tor so your visibility stays higher since your ip will likely change based on the store but you still might be in people's peers dot dat if you use an onion name (but downloads may be a lot slower). I'm not sure if there's a ratio of tor to clearnet nodes either.

[pooya87]

I really started this thread to encourage others to run their own nodes. It improves your security and convenience in my opinion, and we need to support the Bitcoin structure as we enter a challenging decade for crypto and banking.

you forgot to mention the most important thing: are you accepting incoming connections? in simpler words are you uploading or just downloading?

if you want to help yourself (improve security, privacy,... that comes with running a full verification node) then only "downloading" part is enough. as you download everything, verify and store. so you can shut the node down after syncing.

but if you want to help the bitcoin decentralized network then you also have to "upload" meaning to accept incoming connections that would mean your node uploads what it downloaded (the block history for example) and relay whatever you receive such as transaction in your mempool.
so if people want to help the network they should both run their node for longer times and also accept incoming connections.

[jackg]

Pooya raises an interesting point actually, perhaps you could look and see how many users you have connected to you since you said in a previous topic you don't get many. If you have at least one or two connections it would be worthwhile keeping it running especially if they don't have full block height, if you haven't got any you could look at closing the node.

[Jet Cash]

I'm using public WiFi, so I can't enable incoming connections. I seem to have a maximum of 8 peers that can connect at any one time.

I might do a bit more research, and see if any of the WiFi providers will allow incoming connections.

[jackg]

Try it through tor if you can too... Sometimes they can block those connections though.

[Jet Cash]

I need to review public WiFi sites. There is a massive variation in speed and available resources. Most block incoming links through the Bitcoin port. I use the Tor window in the Brave browser sometimes, and a few services cancel the connection after a while, and I have to reconnect.

My concern is that if I push the "free" WiFi services, then it may trigger some new restrictions. I'm already having problems with some Restaurants blocking access to some of my sites like The Crypto Coin Tree, and I have to use Tor to gain access.