I have finally finished downloading the Blockchain and I have a Full Node!

[bitcoinermatt]

I started downloading the Blockchain on my PC about 2 weeks ago; and today, The download finished, and I finally have a full node! My question is, what can I do now? I know I can help the network in some way.. but how?


Thanks, Matt

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[mgoz]

You can let the node continue to run, which secures the Bitcoin network by confirming and validating Bitcoin transactions and blocks. You could use it as a wallet. You can enable JSON-RPC and build an entire Bitcoin service (exchange, buy/sell Bitcoin, etc) around it with whatever programming language you wish.

Back in the day, running a full node was how to CPU mine, which was later removed due to difficulty and profitability. I started with CPU mining on a full node when the blockchain wasn't even 100 MB and could be downloaded in a few minutes. The good old days. The amount of BTC you could mine back then in a week with crappy GPUs now takes years with the latest ASIC.

[hd49728]

I started downloading the Blockchain on my PC about 2 weeks ago; and today, The download finished, and I finally have a full node! My question is, what can I do now? I know I can help the network in some way.. but how?

Thanks, Matt

Do you keep your Bitcoin full node being actively 24/7?

If you don't let it run continuously, it won't help the network too much. It helps but not much. Afaik, some node operators decide to manually config their nodes to connect some nodes they are thinking as reliable nodes. I don't know how know those nodes and how they choose. If your full node is run in 30 minutes, turns off, run again next 4 hours, and so forth I doubt your nodes will have connections with too many other nodes.

[mocacinno]

One part of it is helping the network by storing the ledger locally, and by letting others request blocks from you. You also parse all those blocks, relay transactions, locally enforce consensus rules, ... The bigger the network, the better (at least, theoretically).

The other part of it is: you no longer have to trust a thirth party. You now download the blocks from several other nodes. Since those blocks don't come from a single source, and the block headers also include the hash of the previous block AND all blocks have to follow the consensus rules, it'll be very hard to fool you. Since you have the full ledger on your local device, you dont' have to query other nodes to find the unspent outputs funding your addresses, it's better for your privacy...

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

I started downloading the Blockchain on my PC about 2 weeks ago; and today, The download finished, and I finally have a full node! My question is, what can I do now? I know I can help the network in some way.. but how?


Thanks, Matt

By running a full node you help secure the network's ecosystem, protects it's integrity. But keep in mind, the disk space will grow overtime you have to mitigate it as well. You can also read this as well,

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Full_node

[bitcoinermatt]

I started downloading the Blockchain on my PC about 2 weeks ago; and today, The download finished, and I finally have a full node! My question is, what can I do now? I know I can help the network in some way.. but how?

Thanks, Matt

Do you keep your Bitcoin full node being actively 24/7?

If you don't let it run continuously, it won't help the network too much. It helps but not much. Afaik, some node operators decide to manually config their nodes to connect some nodes they are thinking as reliable nodes. I don't know how know those nodes and how they choose. If your full node is run in 30 minutes, turns off, run again next 4 hours, and so forth I doubt your nodes will have connections with too many other nodes.

Yes, I let it run 24/7

[bitcoinermatt]

One part of it is helping the network by storing the ledger locally, and by letting others request blocks from you. You also parse all those blocks, relay transactions, locally enforce consensus rules, ... The bigger the network, the better (at least, theoretically).

The other part of it is: you no longer have to trust a thirth party. You now download the blocks from several other nodes. Since those blocks don't come from a single source, and the block headers also include the hash of the previous block AND all blocks have to follow the consensus rules, it'll be very hard to fool you. Since you have the full ledger on your local device, you dont' have to query other nodes to find the unspent outputs funding your addresses, it's better for your privacy...

So basically, now I have a way more secure wallet? that's interesting!

[mocacinno]

--snip--

So basically, now I have a way more secure wallet? that's interesting!

Well, not having to trust a thirth party and potentially increasing your privacy is not always the same as a more secure wallet. These terms are not equivalents i'm afraid.

This being said, if you install core in a proper airgapped setup, it's about as secure as humanly possible... If you want a secure wallet that's also easy to use, i'd probably point you towards a leder or a trezor hardware wallet, but these wallets are SPV wallets, so you'd have to sacrifice part of your privacy (altough, trezor just added a tor button in it's default software client, and both ledger and trezor can be used together with electrum which also supports tor) and you'd have to trust the nodes you connect to.

[ranochigo]

If you don't let it run continuously, it won't help the network too much. It helps but not much. Afaik, some node operators decide to manually config their nodes to connect some nodes they are thinking as reliable nodes. I don't know how know those nodes and how they choose. If your full node is run in 30 minutes, turns off, run again next 4 hours, and so forth I doubt your nodes will have connections with too many other nodes.

I think the addr advertisement will have some delay when you shut down the node for an extended period of time. After all, most only connect when they start their node up and are trying to find peers. When your node is offline for too long, I believe certain nodes will remove your IP from their peers.dat after a certain number of failures and resulting in poorer propagation.

As with the issue of whether it runs continuously or not, I think that's pretty debatable. Running a full node primarily is beneficial for the user itself and for the Bitcoin network, I think it'll benefit from the addition but a single node and its uptime won't make too much of a difference. As with the uptime, I think your bandwidth (if you have any limitation) will play a bigger role to determine how much you can contribute to the network.

[hugeblack]

You have taken the first step, all that remains for you to make sure that it is updated with enough space in the future, as for the benefits, they are many:

Better privacy as you will not need to trust third parties: especially if you intend to run a business,
Freedom of choice when a split occurs.

The most important point is that the process is ongoing and you need enough space (disk space requirement grows over time.)

[bitcoinermatt]

You have taken the first step, all that remains for you to make sure that it is updated with enough space in the future, as for the benefits, they are many:

Better privacy as you will not need to trust third parties: especially if you intend to run a business,
Freedom of choice when a split occurs.

The most important point is that the process is ongoing and you need enough space (disk space requirement grows over time.)

Disk space is definetly not going to be a problem. My main issue is internet consumption. I don't have a fixed price for my Wifi. I might just get one with fixed price every month.

[pooya87]

You can use websites such as https://bitnodes.io/ to check whether other node can connect to your node.

Try using this as the last resort and only if you have problems getting any incoming connections and are suspicious that your node may not be reachable. Better way is to ask someone else with a node to try connecting to you rather than using this site.

Although it is not a serious case but as soon as you use this site it will start filling your connections with fake useless nodes that are only there to snoop on you. I've counted up to 7 of them at a time. They both fill your connections and waste your traffic.