[PROJECT] Run a pruned node on a salvaged drive.

[Jet Cash]

I thought it was time for asnother project that might help members who are new(ish) to Bitcoin. One of the best ways to learn about Bitcoin, and its associated blockchain is to run a node. However, the blockchain is getting pretty large now, and many members may not want to dedicate a large chunk of their hard drive to storing a ccomplete chain. A pruned node allows you to maintain a fully functional node, but it only requires a fraction of the storage space. Of course you can use part of your system memory for the storage, but there are a few reasons for using an external drive.  One is security,  you can keep the drive  away from your main computer, and if it is stiolen or compromised, then you may not lose your wallet. Another advantage is the ability to move your wallet between computers - maybe you use one machine at work, and another at home. Yet another consideration is the amount of spare space on your computer, and you may want to keep this free for daily tasks.

If there is sufficient interst, I will use a salvaged 320Gb Hitachi drive, which was taken from a scrap PS3 gaming machine. I have purchased a Sabient USB hard drive enclosure for £8, and this is the only additional expenditure for this project. I will use a low spec Celeron Netbook to run the system, and the drive will be connected through a USB3 port. I will start the blockchain from scratch using public WiFi for the synchronisation, so it will probably take a few weeks to get up to speed. I have installed openSUSE Linux on the Netbook, and it recognises the drive, and reports the correct capacity. However it describes it as having an unknown file system, so I will repartition it, and format and test it before I start the core software. I plan to use EXT4 for the file system, and just hasve a single partition. Please comment if you don't believe this is the best option.

Please let me know if you think this is a project worth reporting, and if the associated discussion will be of interest to members of this board

[BIT-BENDER]

Its of main interest to me and some from my country, what I find is exciting is the drive storage, my country is going through police brutality/harassment, where you can be taking in, at worse killed if you resist arrest if crypto-tools, features are found on your device -tagging/labeled cybercriminal-

Storage drive keeps them safe -from harassments,compromise-.
It might be asked Do I have to be a savvy -in technology-? No.

[Jet Cash]

I don't think it will help you if you are trying to conceal your actions from the authorities. I will be running core from the main hard drive, and just using the disk to store wallet and blockchain info. I suppose you could have two disks with different wallet addresses, and keep the balance in one fairly low. You would have to keep both of them in sync though. Either way, it will be apparent that you have been using Bitcoin to anyone looking at the file structure in your computer. Also, you should be aware that the internet port used by Bitcoin for synchronisation is not a standard one used for browsing. Your ISP or service provider will be aware of your usage if it is illegal in your country.

If you assign the drive when you first run core, then you don't need much tech knowledge, but you will have to know the physical address of the drive. Partitioning and formatting will depend on the operating system you will be using. I'm going to be using a Linux variant, and the commands are pretty simple, even though you will need to run them using terminal. I suspect the greatest problem will be the time required for the initial synchronisation, especially as I am intending to run the project at the lowest cost possible.

[Charles-Tim]

What you meant is to use bitcoin core as a full client wallet, there was a question on bitcoin technical support about the increasing in the memory required to download the blockchain in the bitcoin core full client wallet, although pruned version can be good but can not be useful as the full client in which the whole bitcoin blockchain will be downloaded from the scratch, especially when importing another private key which will not work in a pruned version of bitcoin core but definitely work on the full client version.

I will start the blockchain from scratch using public WiFi for the synchronisation

Public WiFi will not be good for this purpose, it is better to make use of data connection from trusted data provider, the reason is because connection from WIFi may not be secure and it can be a tool for hackers to compromise your computer.

What I know is that it is good to always backup the whole bitcoin blockchain so that it will not be needed again to download it when in need, for example, during damanged computer or lost files on computer. Your idea is good.

[Jet Cash]

You can't download the whole blockchain and retain it if you don't have the storage capacity.

I appreciate that there are some limitations with a pruned node, but for a person who is new to Bitcoin, and has limited resources, then I believe it can be a good introduction.It also helps the Bitcoin community.

I don't think there is much risk for a prudent user of Linux if he uses public WiFi. The greatest problem will be the slow speed. There is also the possibility that the WiFi provided will not allow the ports used by core to be opened. The benefit is that it may allow a user with a limited budget to operate a fully functional node. It can also help people who are travelling, and even moving between countries.

[NotATether]

One is security,  you can keep the drive  away from your main computer, and if it is stiolen or compromised, then you may not lose your wallet. Another advantage is the ability to move your wallet between computers - maybe you use one machine at work, and another at home. Yet another consideration is the amount of spare space on your computer, and you may want to keep this free for daily tasks.

This will be an exercise in making a portable node. You would need to make a shell script to launch bitcoin-qt with all the arguments in the script, without writing them out each time. A .BAT script for Windows is also trivial to write, just write out the path to bitcoin-qt with arguments just like a linux/macos shell script.

Perhaps a Github repository can be created to host the scripts so that they can be preserved in time. Make sure you post here the arguments you pass to bitcoin-qt so we can try this out too.

You'd also need a script to stop bitcoin-qt cleanly and (as a bonus, if you don't want to do this manually) unmount the drive.

[pooya87]

Also, you should be aware that the internet port used by Bitcoin for synchronisation is not a standard one used for browsing. Your ISP or service provider will be aware of your usage if it is illegal in your country.

it is not about the port, the ISP can see what you are doing (ie. using bitcoin) because the communication protocol used in Bitcoin is not using any kind of encryption. so it is all over HTTP and visible to anyone "in the middle" from the public WIFI owner to your ISP or any other.

There is also the possibility that the WiFi provided will not allow the ports used by core to be opened.

can't you change your listening port? or use a different port to connect to other nodes?
example: port:12900, or port:8332, or 8885 and all are running core so it should be possible.

[Jet Cash]

Thanks for the replies. I want to keep the project fairly simple, so I don't want to get involved with running scripts, or anything other than using the basic core software. The idea of changing ports is good, but the probability is that the WiFi provider will have blocked all but basic Internet ports and functions. The simplest solution is just to use a different restaurant.

I'm a great believer in project based learning, so the suggeasted variants are good to help me to improve my knowledge, but there is so much going on in the world at the moment, that I want to keave this as a fairly minor and simple project. I took the decision to change my lifestyle a couple of years ago, and I'm only just starting to create the environment that I want. I have too much dross from the past that I need to clear. Now is a period of dramatic change in the UK. It looks as if we may get the Brexit we voted for ( no deal with the EU), and this will give us massive chances for growth in the future, however we are still controlled by the Eton/Oxford elite, and they are obviously trying to suppress this. The vaccination, face masks and lockdown stupidity illustrates this, and most people ignore the evidence of their eyes and social connections, and just accept the globalist narratives. I don't want to give away control of my health, wealth, food and freedom, and that is why I explore projects like this.

The netbook is a cheap HP Celeron machine that was built in January of 2017. It was bought with Windows 10 installed, and my first task was to scrap that, and I installed Ubuntu. This worked well until the update that disabled the keyboard, and this led me to doubt the long term support for the distro. I tried several other, and the one that works well at the moment is openSUSE. It is not a lightweight distro, and I am sure there are others that would be more suitable for this project. I don't want to research them, but maybe another member could offer some suggestions for low cost or free portable computers. The Hitachi drive is an opportunistic acquisition, and it came from a PS3 game console. I'll post the info about checking it and reformatting a bit later.

I'll install a 2Tb SSD in my Notebook, and replace the Windows with openSUSE, and I'll post about that to help anyone who wants tio switch to Linux and intall the Bitcoin Core. I waiting for the Asda cafe to open so that I can get a coffee and a bacon bun. 3 nice pieces of back bacon in a bap with a black coffe, and all for £2,50. I could make it in the van, but I'm a social animal, and it is more fun sitting at a comfortable table using their WiFi. It's a bit slow, but it will do to get started.