[CHALLENGE] Run A Bitcoin Node: 14 Days To 14 Merits

[NotATether]

Really want to participate on this one but I only have a computer on my work and the laptop in my house is unreliable because it's an archaic Lenovo model. What does running a bitcoin node do? I'm curious about that because I want to explore the old stuff that other people used to do with bitcoin. Does running a node means that you're like a validator for the network?

Exactly. By running a node, you increase the strength of the bitcoin network and make it harder for anyone to deploy a fake blockchain and transaction history.

[1715446768]

1715446768

[1715446768]

1715446768

[1715446768]

1715446768

[1715446768]

1715446768

[1715446768]

1715446768

[Ultegra134]

Ultegra134 this will count as your 14th day which means you are the first person to complete the challenge. Congratulations! You will receive your merit shortly.

Wow, the days passed so fast. Thank you for this learning opportunity! Throughout all these years I'm involved in cryptocurrencies, I had never installed Bitcoin Core, at least the recent years. I had probably installed it when I first learned about Bitcoin somewhere in 2014, but I highly doubt if I ever got it fully synced and running. I'll keep in synced and running whenever my computer is enabled. It has been a great experience, thank you once again for the opportunity!

[apogio]

Really want to participate on this one but I only have a computer on my work and the laptop in my house is unreliable because it's an archaic Lenovo model. What does running a bitcoin node do? I'm curious about that because I want to explore the old stuff that other people used to do with bitcoin. Does running a node means that you're like a validator for the network?

Bitcoin is a blockchain. The native token of this blockchain is BTC.

When you press the "send" button on your wallet, or when you watch your balance and the balance is updated, the wallets must be connected to a "provider" of this information.

What do they do?
1. They connect with the rest of the nodes and they exchange block and transaction info to keep the whole network up to date.
2. They keep a local copy of the blockchain so they can't be "scammed" by fake transactions or by people who pretend to own BTC that they don't actually own.
3. They validate the validity of every transaction and every block

So why should you run a node?
1. So as you have the copy of the blockchain
2. So as you can use it to communicate with the rest of the network
3. So as you can validate yourself every transaction and be helpful for the network
4. For privacy reasons. You can't broadcast a transaction, or update the balance without using a node. If you use another person's node, then they will know everything about this transaction and the addresses that you use. So, using your own node is an easy way to fix it.

I can't stress enough how important nodes are for Bitcoin. They are the heart of the whole network. Miners too, of course, but nodes are easier to run and yet, not too many people run them.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

Day 11

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 826272,
  "headers": 826272,
  "bestblockhash": "00000000000000000001043677412d0663b605be09f2a83c16bc36158666cb39",
  "difficulty": 73197634206448.34,
  "time": 1705588058,
  "mediantime": 1705585073,
  "verificationprogress": 0.9999938646364378,
  "initialblockdownload": false,
  "chainwork": "00000000000000000000000000000000000000006611773cdeb550fcc94ca2b9",
  "size_on_disk": 4849004285,
  "pruned": true,
  "pruneheight": 823824,
  "automatic_pruning": true,
  "prune_target_size": 4999610368,
  "warnings": ""
}

No, it's usually faster to sync than mainnet at least from my own experience (never timed it but as far as I remember you can sync within a few hours)

I tried to sync it like 5 to 10 minutes and even in early years, syncing speed is not too fast.

[Shishir99]

I don't know what was wrong with my device or maybe it was with my internet. I came back home and saw that the synchronization was finished. So, I wanted to give it a break because the laptop has been turned on for over a week now. But when I started the node again, it couldn't connect to the peers anymore. Maybe it was my internet issues but I was able to access the internet from my laptop. But the wallet finally fully synchronized again. Now my question is, what should I post tomorrow?

Day 9

[bayu7adi]

DAY 5

+8,14%

[oktana]

Unfortunately I can’t send the log of my node for today because my pc went off just before I could paste it on here, but my progress was at 65% which is about 9% increase from my last update. By tomorrow I will continue to post with the log. So,

DAY 10
65% downloaded

[Cricktor]

...

Just curious, don't you have control over when and why your device goes off, for a shutdown? I strongly advise to shutdown Bitcoin Core always gracefully as you don't want to risk that your chainstate and blocks data may get corrupted which could happen to my knowledge.

It doesn't mean you'd need to re-download the blockchain, but cleaning up such a corruption takes extra steps that you can easily avoid.

If your computer is unstable, fix the causes of instability first. Unreliable power is best mitigated with a laptop which can overcome wall power issues with his built-in battery.

[LoyceV]

when I started the node again, it couldn't connect to the peers anymore.

Judging by your screenshot, the wallet is "Up to date.", which means it's connected. Click Window > Peers to confirm it's connected.
Maybe you're just not used to seeing the real interface without IBD You can create a wallet now.

[apogio]

DAY 12:

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 826379,
  "headers": 826379,
  "bestblockhash": "000000000000000000012359df8ed548d973ef4c68a2283092385fff80791d44",
  "difficulty": 73197634206448.34,
  "time": 1705647868,
  "mediantime": 1705645253,
  "verificationprogress": 0.9999957009800249,
  "initialblockdownload": false,
  "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000662d4aa47d899245f32eee0c",
  "size_on_disk": 615713257117,
  "pruned": false,
  "warnings": ""
}

[SilverCryptoBullet]

Day 12

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 826391,
  "headers": 826396,
  "bestblockhash": "00000000000000000001e85f7b3b5fb30a6b067f26ede6d174c8d6b5b59c1932",
  "difficulty": 73197634206448.34,
  "time": 1705656425,
  "mediantime": 1705652580,
  "verificationprogress": 0.9999856862007611,
  "initialblockdownload": false,
  "chainwork": "000000000000000000000000000000000000000066306987703f483fccd0aeb8",
  "size_on_disk": 4922961344,
  "pruned": true,
  "pruneheight": 823901,
  "automatic_pruning": true,
  "prune_target_size": 4999610368,
  "warnings": ""
}

[tech30338]

Finish the task for 14 days , did everyone finish syncing? This is nice everyone is participating, and trying to run their own node

[NotATether]

Progress: (valid as of the creation date of this post)

Code:

Day 5:
bayu7adi

Day 9:
Shishir99

Day 10:
oktana

Day 11:
spiker777 (awaiting progress report for day 11)

Day 12:
SilverCryptoBullet
apogio

Day 14:
tech30338
DYING_S0UL (awaiting 99% synced)

If you see any error in the progress report like your name isn't listed correctly, and so on, please let me know so I can fix it.

Congratulations to  tech30338 for finishing the challenge: You will receive your merit shortly.

@Shishir99 from your screenshot it says that your node is up to date. So all you have to do is every day keep posting it to prove that you are still running it.

[Shishir99]

Judging by your screenshot, the wallet is "Up to date.", which means it's connected. Click Window > Peers to confirm it's connected.
Maybe you're just not used to seeing the real interface without IBD You can create a wallet now.

Yes, It was up to date and I understood that. Yes, indeed, I am not used to seeing this interface. But, What I was trying to say was, that there was some connection issue with my device. Later I used a VPN and everything worked fine. Now I have created a wallet as well.

@Shishir99 from your screenshot it says that your node is up to date. So all you have to do is every day keep posting it to prove that you are still running it.

Sure. I will continue posting my up-to-date wallet. But, I don't want to top up this wallet for now. I hope it's okay.

Day 10

[spiker777]

Day (11) and 12 Progress:

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 439480,
  "headers": 826434,
  "bestblockhash": "000000000000000000c9dfaaac6654150ae5ad0d57bb5b90b7cd6d79788dbae2",
  "difficulty": 254620187304.0614,
  "time": 1479454024,
  "mediantime": 1479451225,
  "verificationprogress": 0.1797939415491666,
  "initialblockdownload": true,
  "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000002f1f3cd74cc81e187546f3",
  "size_on_disk": 104040783102,
  "pruned": true,
  "pruneheight": 0,
  "automatic_pruning": true,
  "prune_target_size": 299999690752,
  "warnings": ""
}

Unfortunately I couldn't send Day 11 report yesterday. Kindly accept my apology.  I also couldn't get the blockchaininfo for yesterday.

[kuriboh]

I started downloading Bitcoin Core today. It appears that it will be very late because of how slowly my network is operating here, but it should be fine in a while. It might crash very soon, though.

1st Day

[bayu7adi]

DAY 6

+2,98%

[DYING_S0UL]

DAY 15 progress: Almost Finished...

[oktana]

...

Just curious, don't you have control over when and why your device goes off, for a shutdown? I strongly advise to shutdown Bitcoin Core always gracefully as you don't want to risk that your chainstate and blocks data may get corrupted which could happen to my knowledge.

It doesn't mean you'd need to re-download the blockchain, but cleaning up such a corruption takes extra steps that you can easily avoid.

If your computer is unstable, fix the causes of instability first. Unreliable power is best mitigated with a laptop which can overcome wall power issues with his built-in battery.

No, my computer is not broken. Sometimes it could be that I took it out with me. I know about block data getting corrupted, and it happened to me 2 times already (sadly). What I have learnt from it is that it is better that your device suddenly goes off than your device going off when you’re trying to shutdown Bitcoin core appropriate. If let’s say your laptop gets low and you do not shut down Bitcoin core, when it gets back on, it continues (from my observations).

[apogio]

DAY 13:

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 826528,
  "headers": 826528,
  "bestblockhash": "00000000000000000002a28d6e42a52050c498763666c128b3bf892a2fd82bf8",
  "difficulty": 73197634206448.34,
  "time": 1705741563,
  "mediantime": 1705739934,
  "verificationprogress": 0.9999970392334309,
  "initialblockdownload": false,
  "chainwork": "000000000000000000000000000000000000000066540a266dd9d07996c75bb9",
  "size_on_disk": 616003949862,
  "pruned": false,
  "warnings": ""
}