I'm considering becoming a full node

[Longsword94]

What are the benefits for me?

If there is none economically (ex I don't recieve transaction fees) what are the actual minimum system requirements to do that?

I'm planning to have a 24/7 node working but I'm scared of electricity costs (in my country it's very expensive) so I'm considering on how to do that with the lowest expense possible.

I own several computers so I wouldn't need to buy hardware, but they either are very outdated or not really powerful (cpu and gpu wise)

[jackg]

A standard pebtium laptop would take a week or two to download the blockchain (they aren't very fast).

If you can get better ram for it then you might be able to get it to go a bit faster.

There was a thread of people using raspberry pis which use about the same amount of electricity as some modems (afaik). See if you can find power ratings for the products you want to buy to see if its worth it. You don't get paid for hosting one anyway so it might or might not be worth doing it. You'll be propagating the network but there are a lot of nodes running already.

[mindrust]

What are the benefits for me?

If there is none economically (ex I don't recieve transaction fees) what are the actual minimum system requirements to do that?

I'm planning to have a 24/7 node working but I'm scared of electricity costs (in my country it's very expensive) so I'm considering on how to do that with the lowest expense possible.

I own several computers so I wouldn't need to buy hardware, but they either are very outdated or not really powerful (cpu and gpu wise)

A small netbook like this would consume little to none electricity. (~$150)

Running a node itself doesn't have any financial benefits directly but it allows you to become a part of the bitcoin network. You can observe the ongoing network activity without needing any third parties.

Or... you can create your own Lightning Node (Allows to send and receive very small amount of bitcoins) and BTCpay server (free open source payment gate for your business) on top of your full node if you are interested in those.

[Longsword94]

Yeah I know that nodes are already a lot, but volunteers would improve the blockchain security even if they are few.

One volunteer a day keeps the 51% attack away right?

As for the raspberry part I feel relieved. I've always been fascinated by hollywood hackers and when I see mining facilities my heart beats faster they look so cool! But ASICS are expensive and loud and in my country because of electricity costs they are useless with current bitcoin price... No way I would be able to run a mining node haha

[jackg]

No the pi is just a tiny computer.

And the 51% attack is based on miners, not nodes. Whether someone accepts your transaction is based on how their node is configured.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/

Discussion on it can be found here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5196287.msg52891211#msg52891211

[ranochigo]

One volunteer a day keeps the 51% attack away right?

It doesn't. 51% has absolutely nothing to do with helping to resist 51% attacks. Since the blocks generated during 51% attack, the ease of executing an attack with 10 nodes is the same as 10,000. Nodes would just accept the rogue blocks since they are still within the protocol rules.
In terms of security, it does help to improve the network's security by potentially make sybil attack harder. For a sybil attack to be executed with a large number or nodes, the attacker needs a lot more resources and nodes to have a chance at executing one.

[ABCbits]

What are the benefits for me?

1. Better privacy (if you use Bitcoin Core as your wallet)
2. Don't need to rely completely on another full node
3. Direct access to Bitcoin's blockchain, it's really useful if you're a software developer

If there is none economically (ex I don't recieve transaction fees) what are the actual minimum system requirements to do that?

According to https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#minimum-requirements, it's

• Desktop or laptop hardware running recent versions of Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.
• 200 gigabytes of free disk space, accessible at a minimum read/write speed of 100 MB/s.
• 2 gigabytes of memory (RAM)
• A broadband Internet connection with upload speeds of at least 400 kilobits (50 kilobytes) per second
• An unmetered connection, a connection with high upload limits, or a connection you regularly monitor to ensure it doesn’t exceed its upload limits. It’s common for full nodes on high-speed connections to use 200 gigabytes upload or more a month.
• Download usage is around 20 gigabytes a month, plus around an additional 195 gigabytes the first time you start your node.
• 6 hours a day that your full node can be left running. (You can do other things with your computer while running a full node.) More hours would be better, and best of all would be if you can run your node continuously.

Note: many operating systems today (Windows, Mac, and Linux) enter a low-power mode after the screensaver activates, slowing or halting network traffic. This is often the default setting on laptops and on all Mac OS X laptops and desktops. Check your screensaver settings and disable automatic “sleep” or “suspend” options to ensure you support the network whenever your computer is running.
[/list]

Take note it's a bit outdated since Bitcoin's blockchain size is about 270GB. 1GB RAM is also enough with additional configuration & if you use lightweight Linux OS.

I'm planning to have a 24/7 node working but I'm scared of electricity costs (in my country it's very expensive) so I'm considering on how to do that with the lowest expense possible.

I own several computers so I wouldn't need to buy hardware, but they either are very outdated or not really powerful (cpu and gpu wise)

Then you might want to buy and use Raspberry Pi instead which uses between 5W - 15W (depends on type you bought)

[fillippone]

I run a node myself.
If you want to understand why it is important to run a node, you can revert to some very insightful resources like the following ones:

• Running A Full Node
• 6 REASONS TO RUN A BITCOIN FULL NODE
• VIDEO Bitcoin Q&A: Why running a node is important

if you want to setup your node using a RaspbeyPi, you can follow this very good guide (the one I followed too, and I even translated in italian), that allow to get a 24/7 inexpensive node, with very little technical knwoledge.

 ]Beginner’s Guide to ️Lightning️ on a Raspberry Pi

[mathijsbok]

I have installed BitCoin Core, and have setup all that is needed , also get incoming peers, but still i see no transactions coming in. It looks like my node isn't running on a way. Do you guys have an idea ?

[mindrust]

I have installed BitCoin Core, and have setup all that is needed , also get incoming peers, but still i see no transactions coming in. It looks like my node isn't running on a way. Do you guys have an idea ?

Did someone send you any coins? If not, then you won't see any incoming transactions. Setting up a full node has nothing to do with collecting transactions.

If you have peers, that's enough.

[mindrust]

I have installed BitCoin Core, and have setup all that is needed , also get incoming peers, but still i see no transactions coming in. It looks like my node isn't running on a way. Do you guys have an idea ?

Did someone send you any coins? If not, then you won't see any incoming transactions. Setting up a full node has nothing to do with collecting transactions.

If you have peers, that's enough.

Maybe he meant his mempool is empty and other nodes doesn't send unconfirmed transaction to his node. But this only happen if you explicitly configure Bitcoin Core only to accept Blocks.

This is how my node looks right now and I don't have upnp enabled (so my node is not visible on bitnodes) and I can still see the mempool state.



While I am writing this post, another block was found and the number of unconfirmed tx's fell to 300-400. If it doesn't look like that screen shot, something isn't working properly probably.

[mathijsbok]

this is how my screen looks like. So i get incoming and outcoming peers. But i have 00000 numbers of transactions

http://avgntiel.nl/BitcoinCoreMTB.png

And why my image doesn't show up ?

[ranochigo]

this is how my screen looks like. So i get incoming and outcoming peers. But i have 00000 numbers of transactions



And why my image doesn't show up ?

You're a newbie so the images won't show up. Its normal as per the forum rules.

As for the mempool stats not showing up, it is a known bug [1] for Bitcoin Core 0.19.0.1. It's a GUI issue and should be fixed within the next release.

[1] https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/17576

[mathijsbok]

So better downgrade to 0.18 ?

[ranochigo]

So better downgrade to 0.18 ?

It's a GUI bug. It doesn't really affect the functionality of the client as a full node. You can still get the mempool information albeit you'll have to input a few commands. Other than that, it functions the same as any other node.

[mathijsbok]

But when it is all running, were do i see the node rewards ?

[ranochigo]

But when it is all running, were do i see the node rewards ?

What do you mean by rewards? Full nodes are not rewarded for running. Only miners who find blocks are rewarded.

[mathijsbok]

Hahhaha, what is then the usefull thing of Bitcoin Core ?
When you have it running but nothing get for it ?

[mindrust]

Hahhaha, what is then the usefull thing of Bitcoin Core ?
When you have it running but nothing get for it ?

What are the benefits for me?

If there is none economically (ex I don't recieve transaction fees) what are the actual minimum system requirements to do that?

I'm planning to have a 24/7 node working but I'm scared of electricity costs (in my country it's very expensive) so I'm considering on how to do that with the lowest expense possible.

I own several computers so I wouldn't need to buy hardware, but they either are very outdated or not really powerful (cpu and gpu wise)

A small netbook like this would consume little to none electricity. (~$150)

Running a node itself doesn't have any financial benefits directly but it allows you to become a part of the bitcoin network. You can observe the ongoing network activity without needing any third parties.

Or... you can create your own Lightning Node (Allows to send and receive very small amount of bitcoins) and BTCpay server (free open source payment gate for your business) on top of your full node if you are interested in those.

If you want quick moniez go set up a dash masternode, invest in shitcoins or play dice. You are in the wrong place for making easy money.

[alani123]

One volunteer a day keeps the 51% attack away right?

It doesn't. 51% has absolutely nothing to do with helping to resist 51% attacks. Since the blocks generated during 51% attack, the ease of executing an attack with 10 nodes is the same as 10,000. Nodes would just accept the rogue blocks since they are still within the protocol rules.
In terms of security, it does help to improve the network's security by potentially make sybil attack harder. For a sybil attack to be executed with a large number or nodes, the attacker needs a lot more resources and nodes to have a chance at executing one.

The more honest full nodes there are on the network, the hardest it is for miners to perform attacks on the network or increase their earnings with malicious practices via Sybil attacks. For example, in a selfish mining attack, the attackers might have higher chances of having their split of a chain being accepted if they had poisoned the network with non-impartial nodes. So in an indirect way, honest nodes help also against mining attacks.