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

[apogio]

DAY 2:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 824966,
  "headers": 824966,
  "bestblockhash": "000000000000000000004f3a85a15a4a66d8d25c719e2eb6fcbc282365b38f6e",
  "difficulty": 73197634206448.34,
  "time": 1704783575,
  "mediantime": 1704782509,
  "verificationprogress": 0.9999969936535228,
  "initialblockdownload": false,
  "chainwork": "000000000000000000000000000000000000000064bdd5c15a751e9a19088eef",
  "size_on_disk": 612971397864,
  "pruned": false,
  "warnings": ""
}

[1714547776]

1714547776

[1714547776]

1714547776

[tech30338]

Day 5

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 824969,
  "headers": 824969,
  "bestblockhash": "000000000000000000037c59e3d40eddc1d97d53494f5fb735abf3cacab4a165",
  "difficulty": 73197634206448.34,
  "time": 1704785372,
  "mediantime": 1704783139,
  "verificationprogress": 0.9999988824061389,
  "initialblockdownload": false,
  "chainwork": "000000000000000000000000000000000000000064be9d7a17228c188f70ff1a",
  "size_on_disk": 4902415622,
  "pruned": true,
  "pruneheight": 822506,
  "automatic_pruning": true,
  "prune_target_size": 4999610368,
  "warnings": ""
}

[NotATether]

I was busy yesterday and forgot to post the progress. Apologies!

Progress:

Code:

Day 1:
spiker777

Day 2:
apogio
oktana

Day 5:
tech30338
Ultegra134
DYING_S0UL

[LoyceV]

My setup:
Bitcoin Core 26.0 on Ubuntu Linux 20 LTS, with settings:

Code:

./bitcoind -dbcache=4096 -prune=550

Every hour I store the output of:

Code:

./bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo
free # for memory usage
ifconfig # for bandwidth usage

My system:
Intel i3 laptop with 8 GB RAM, no swap, SSD, VPN and about 70 Mbit/s fibre (shared with the rest of the house).

Results!
Hourly snapshots:
Memory usage (in kB): the column under "used" is actual RAM in use by running programs, the amount under "buff/cache" is file cache. So my 8 GB ram has 1.4 GB in use, and 6 GB as cache. I'm not sure how Bitcoin Core's dbcache is counted here, it looks like it's part of "buff/cache":

Code:

              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
0: Mem:        7896464      886744     3540780       71976     3468940     6631040
1: Mem:        7896464     1330572     1431872       67472     5134020     6191636
2: Mem:        7896464     1430260      370860       56728     6095344     6102660
3: Mem:        7896464     1415924      212176       55604     6268364     6118096
4: Mem:        7896464     1406264      265548       55612     6224652     6127556
5: Mem:        7896464     1464192      604184       56784     5828088     6068652
6: Mem:        7896464     1438192      466904       56788     5991368     6094572
7: Mem:        7896464     1453828      536400       56812     5906236     6078956
8: Mem:        7896464     1471348      475660       57364     5949456     6061140
9: Mem:        7896464     1450140      496528       57364     5949796     6082164
10: Mem:        7896464     1462976      282460       56852     6151028     6070016
11: Mem:        7896464     1433148      383072       56812     6080244     6099500
12: Mem:        7896464     1345788      679108       56768     5871568     6186660
13: Mem:        7896464     1362892      570220       58164     5963352     6168708
14: Mem:        7896464     1470504      689756       59260     5736204     6060004
15: Mem:        7896464     1466812      736848       58212     5692804     6064640
16: Mem:        7896464     1468596      667628       59388     5760240     6061412
17: Mem:        7896464     1459996      600740       59456     5835728     6070040
18: Mem:        7896464     1471352      564384       59272     5860728     6058980
19: Mem:        7896464     1453480      635228       59480     5807756     6076660
20: Mem:        7896464     1462944      319308       58824     6114212     6067856
21: Mem:        7896464     1465848      379816       59596     6050800     6063936
22: Mem:        7896464     1476788      228816       60656     6190860     6051860
23: Mem:        7896464     1379152      326068       60616     6191244     6149720
24: Mem:        7896464     1435832      263568       59068     6197064     6094576
25: Mem:        7896464     1477692      544540       58100     5874232     6053500
26: Mem:        7896464     1449552      512540       58512     5934372     6081168
27: Mem:        7896464     1465168      710916       59616     5720380     6064528
28: Mem:        7896464     1500760      139072       57912     6256632     6030720
29: Mem:        7896464     1458464      299044       59600     6138956     6071308
30: Mem:        7896464     1516848      491032       57772     5888584     6014708
31: Mem:        7896464     1515076      189824       59604     6191564     6015588
32: Mem:        7896464     1510132      137576       57704     6248756     6023336
33: Mem:        7896464     1514920      203540       57264     6178004     6020008
34: Mem:        7896464     1498772      125608       59504     6272084     6037380
35: Mem:        7896464     1419124      135508       59432     6341832     6118808
36: Mem:        7896464     1489180      159092       59456     6248192     6049372
37: Mem:        7896464     1495980      188368       59560     6212116     6042884
38: Mem:        7896464     1487280      487328       58468     5921856     6049808
39: Mem:        7896464     1468228      149468       57704     6278768     6066864
40: Mem:        7896464     1473212      131732       58660     6291520     6061800

Code:

0:   "verificationprogress": 1.054359111951477e-09,
1:   "verificationprogress": 0.04891353970646389,
2:   "verificationprogress": 0.09407763328821177,
3:   "verificationprogress": 0.1452094064674858,
4:   "verificationprogress": 0.1999485637578325,
5:   "verificationprogress": 0.2502986361236066,
6:   "verificationprogress": 0.2948632578813903,
7:   "verificationprogress": 0.3253893081185931,
8:   "verificationprogress": 0.3667325462341976,
9:   "verificationprogress": 0.4181769295434056,
10:   "verificationprogress": 0.4684429325547408,
11:   "verificationprogress": 0.5167469289823825,
12:   "verificationprogress": 0.5560739987615844,
13:   "verificationprogress": 0.5856895281560425,
14:   "verificationprogress": 0.6149000806640802,
15:   "verificationprogress": 0.6362808879763396,
16:   "verificationprogress": 0.6572300384174818,
17:   "verificationprogress": 0.6743030443020936,
18:   "verificationprogress": 0.6898836424965333,
19:   "verificationprogress": 0.707189535621089,
20:   "verificationprogress": 0.7257414464822198,
21:   "verificationprogress": 0.7432379893745559,
22:   "verificationprogress": 0.7591546335013464,
23:   "verificationprogress": 0.7755112799090741,
24:   "verificationprogress": 0.7921896358067945,
25:   "verificationprogress": 0.8087255859251153,
26:   "verificationprogress": 0.8238380369120022,
27:   "verificationprogress": 0.8390669815384693,
28:   "verificationprogress": 0.8552901640231105,
29:   "verificationprogress": 0.8702372187018386,
30:   "verificationprogress": 0.8939735382422083,
31:   "verificationprogress": 0.9077083890464666,
32:   "verificationprogress": 0.9246245153988459,
33:   "verificationprogress": 0.9385434003500938,
34:   "verificationprogress": 0.9489972191119592,
35:   "verificationprogress": 0.9542581918963842,
36:   "verificationprogress": 0.9589770006924087,
37:   "verificationprogress": 0.9668372904078799,
38:   "verificationprogress": 0.9784829067702089,
39:   "verificationprogress": 0.9874556287852982,
40:   "verificationprogress": 0.997143865345627,

Converted to progress per hour:

The dip after 7 hours may have been caused by internet congestion.
During the first hours, the sync speed was limited by my internet speed. After 13-15 hours, it's clear that bandwidth is no longer the limiting factor. I'm not sure what caused the dip in progress at 35-36 hours: if I have to guess, blocks were mostly filled with Ordinals at that time.
During the last hours, sync speed was limited by my SSD speed (and the lack of RAM).

It would be interesting to compare sync times between Windows and Linux, on the exact same hardware. Unfortunately, I don't have Windows to test this.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

My prune node today. 44.7%.

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 580794,
  "headers": 824987,
  "bestblockhash": "000000000000000000181726006a4ff8bf4db7cfad46aa5e0b8daa3b46759b86",
  "difficulty": 7409399249090.253,
  "time": 1560570497,
  "mediantime": 1560567947,
  "verificationprogress": 0.4469682672667246,
  "initialblockdownload": true,
  "chainwork": "000000000000000000000000000000000000000006afcf56ae8a47c3cbb86143",
  "size_on_disk": 4850407692,
  "pruned": true,
  "pruneheight": 577447,
  "automatic_pruning": true,
  "prune_target_size": 4999610368,
  "warnings": ""
}

I was busy yesterday and forgot to post the progress. Apologies!

Can I join, please

I actually run the node 7 days.

[spiker777]

Day 2 Update

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 269537,
  "headers": 825029,
  "bestblockhash": "00000000000000033fa77127650d4853a0af8af8b4b4051373a5c076304556aa",
  "difficulty": 510929738.0161518,
  "time": 1384414352,
  "mediantime": 1384410333,
  "verificationprogress": 0.02845592873068672,
  "initialblockdownload": true,
  "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000003a27a14cdea5884ebb6",
  "size_on_disk": 14311329974,
  "pruned": true,
  "pruneheight": 0,
  "automatic_pruning": true,
  "prune_target_size": 299999690752,
  "warnings": ""
}

[Ultegra134]

Day 6:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 616620,
  "headers": 825030,
  "bestblockhash": "00000000000000000001d432b156f481a94336c1a6cbd41a47b583369e1306e8",
  "difficulty": 15466098935554.65,
  "time": 1581235581,
  "mediantime": 1581233155,
  "verificationprogress": 0.5511284619745094,
  "initialblockdownload": true,
  "chainwork": "00000000000000000000000000000000000000000c84fe30b14d2ef7720e174f",
  "size_on_disk": 34091967163,
  "pruned": true,
  "pruneheight": 587181,
  "automatic_pruning": true,
  "prune_target_size": 34999369728,
  "warnings": ""
}

Turned off the computer yesterday, minor progress to 55%.

[Shishir99]

The challenge seems interesting. But I am afraid because of my laptop configuration. My laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad with an i5 8th gen processor, 250 GB nvme, and 8 GB of RAM. Can I run a pruned node with this one? I had tried before. But, it works too slowly when I browse the internet and run the node at the same time. But, that was on Windows 10. I recently set up the Windows 11 operating system. I could give it a try. Has anybody started with similar configuration devices? BTW, My internet speed isn't bad. I have 20mbps speed. But I can get up to 50mbps If I want. Just I have to call my ISP. How many days it should take to download the whole blockchain with 20mbps speed?

edit; does it download the blocks when the screen goes off? I mean it goes to sleep mode after 30 minutes. What do I have to do with it? Should I turn on always awake? Or I could run it off-screen?

edit2: never mind. I found it.

[DYING_S0UL]

DAY 6 progress:

Progress is bit slow for me. Electricity was out for 7 hours today and my internet speed sucks as before. That's why I couldn't run the bitcoin core. Waiting for December 12 as they are suppose to increase my speed from 5 MBPS to 15 MBPS on dec 12. After that, we can hope that the progress will be faster. Another thing is that, I know its a 14 days challenge but I intend to run it until I can reach a 100% sync no matter how many days it takes. No point in closing it halfway.

-DYING_S0UL

[apogio]

DAY 6 progress:

Progress is bit slow for me. Electricity was out for 7 hours today and my internet speed sucks as before. That's why I couldn't run the bitcoin core. Waiting for December 12 as they are suppose to increase my speed from 5 MBPS to 15 MBPS on dec 12. After that, we can hope that the progress will be faster. Another thing is that, I know its a 14 days challenge but I intend to run it until I can reach a 100% sync no matter how many days it takes. No point in closing it halfway.

Hello.

The idea of this topic is to introduce new people to self sovereignity by running their own nodes. There absolutely no reason to stop after it syncs, as you said already. We must learn to run nodes. This way, the network will become more decentralised and we will be our own bosses.

I am sad to see that you have so slow internet. Is the speed that low in general in your country? At the same time, 7hrs without electricity, it sucks... I hope you are ok now.

[digaran]

I'm still not convinced why is it necessary to verify everything myself, I mean it should be obvious that the latest 500 confirmed and matured blocks could be used as a safe measure to indicate that the UTXO set we would be holding on our wallets is legit, and we could just confirm it by comparing the hash of our set with the hash of our peer's sets to make sure it's all good.

So if that hasn't been implemented to make a better use of pruned mode wallet for everyone, makes you wonder, what are the devs doing?

Maybe they should think about this instead being worried that increasing block size would restrict new node operators, it is already restricted by more than an initial 500GB download.
And the AI calls me a dev team harasser, they itch for it. Lol

[DYING_S0UL]

The idea of this topic is to introduce new people to self sovereignity by running their own nodes. There absolutely no reason to stop after it syncs, as you said already.

I am sad to see that you have so slow internet. Is the speed that low in general in your country? At the same time, 7hrs without electricity, it sucks... I hope you are ok now.

That's why I said I intend to keep it running. My progress is 0.16% per hour with 31.07% done. Imagine how slow it is!!!

Well my friend I live in a rural area and that's why the slow internet connection. I never had a stable connection. There will always be some problems whether its my isp or the fiber or their hardware or the main server or anything which can cause to no internet. Also load shedding is very common in our country but we are used to it. No worries.

[apogio]

Well my friend I live in a rural area and that's why the slow internet connection. I never had a stable connection. There will always be some problems whether its my isp or the fiber or their hardware or the main server or anything which can cause to no internet. Also load shedding is very common in our country but we are used to it. No worries.

Your situation is the exact reason why I always vote in favour of small block sizes.
Even under the circumstances you described, you still have the opportunity to run a node, but it will just require a little more time.
Imagine if the blocks were 10 times larger, how difficult it would be for you to finish the IBD.
Kudos to you for trying, I know the motivation is not only the 14 merits. Keep going!

[oktana]

I was busy yesterday and forgot to post the progress. Apologies!

Progress:

Code:

Day 1:
spiker777

Day 2:
apogio

Day 5:
tech30338
Ultegra134
DYING_S0UL

Mmm

[NotATether]

Mmm

It seems that I missed your entry in the process of updating the progress. Sorry about that! It's been fixed now.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

My prune node today.

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 653830,
  "headers": 825130,
  "bestblockhash": "0000000000000000000ae96fa57033cd841328f2e384eb9578958f4ef62c000c",
  "difficulty": 19997335994446.11,
  "time": 1603370689,
  "mediantime": 1603368137,
  "verificationprogress": 0.6104811576528744,
  "initialblockdownload": true,
  "chainwork": "000000000000000000000000000000000000000014f755b28a789431ddc81fea",
  "size_on_disk": 4452907203,
  "pruned": true,
  "pruneheight": 650793,
  "automatic_pruning": true,
  "prune_target_size": 4999610368,
  "warnings": ""
}

NotATether, is it count as my Day 2 or more?

Yes, everyone can join.

Yesterday result. I run the prune node since 3 January.

Thank you.

[apogio]

DAY 3:

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 825136,
  "headers": 825136,
  "bestblockhash": "000000000000000000005e8995fdc28fc05bdfe5d4a8c276ff57215598cc3b23",
  "difficulty": 73197634206448.34,
  "time": 1704886852,
  "mediantime": 1704886406,
  "verificationprogress": 0.9999991165935869,
  "initialblockdownload": false,
  "chainwork": "000000000000000000000000000000000000000064ea0b5073835b42f97c0dc9",
  "size_on_disk": 613315493237,
  "pruned": false,
  "warnings": ""
}

[tech30338]

day 6

Code:

{
  "chain": "main",
  "blocks": 825142,
  "headers": 825142,
  "bestblockhash": "00000000000000000002289f9a5f728bbf388e88eb1db2ad3f0373ff83b485d0",
  "difficulty": 73197634206448.34,
  "time": 1704891514,
  "mediantime": 1704887836,
  "verificationprogress": 0.9999992811069129,
  "initialblockdownload": false,
  "chainwork": "000000000000000000000000000000000000000064eb9ac1ecde363fe64cee1f",
  "size_on_disk": 4951722347,
  "pruned": true,
  "pruneheight": 822665,
  "automatic_pruning": true,
  "prune_target_size": 4999610368,
  "warnings": ""
}

[o_e_l_e_o]

I mean it should be obvious that the latest 500 confirmed and matured blocks could be used as a safe measure to indicate that the UTXO set we would be holding on our wallets is legit

You connect to my server, and I show you 500 fake blocks with a difficulty of 1 which I just generated a minute ago. How do you know my blocks are fake unless you verify them yourself?

[LoyceV]

You connect to my server, and I show you 500 fake blocks with a difficulty of 1 which I just generated a minute ago. How do you know my blocks are fake unless you verify them yourself?

This would actually be really good to do as a proof of concept. But still: the user will know soon enough when he realized blocks and chainstate are too small, and his new deposits don't show up.