This guide is for anyone looking for a low friction, ‘plug-and-play’ Bitcoin & Lightning node setup.
- To make money: There are no financial rewards for running a Bitcoin node. You’re thinking of mining.
- To learn more about Bitcoin and nerd out: Setting up a node is a fun. You get to tinker with hardware, and see first hand how the network is made of ordinary people around the work running a little machine.
- Contribute to Bitcoin’s resilience: The more nodes that are running on the Bitcoin network, the more resilient it is to an attack. By running a node, you are helping to keep the Bitcoin network strong and secure.
- Privacy: When you use a Bitcoin wallet, it typically connects to a node run by someone else. This means that the node operator can see your IP address and transaction history. By running your own node, you can keep your transaction history private.
- Lightning: Running a Bitcoin node gives you the ability to run a lightning node too. You can then send and recieve payments on the lightning network.
- You’ll have something in common with
Jack Dorsey
, he runs a node
I personally use
Umbrel
– it’s super easy to use.
If you go DIY - you can probaby put a node together for $250 (prices of parts change, but that’s what the estimate is in Oct 23). Here’s what you’ll need:
- A computer or Raspberry Pi
- A hard drive or SSD with at least 600 GB of free space
- An internet connection with upload and download speeds of at least 50 Mbps
- A Bitcoin node software client
If you’re going for a Raspberry Pi setup, here’s what you need:
- Rasberry Pi board
- Hard Drive (1TB)
- Case
- Heat Sink
- Ethernet Cable
- Power Supply
- SD card 16GB
Here’s a great video on how to set up your hardware.
You don’t need to buy Umbrel’s hardware to use it’s operating system, umbrelOS. It’s free and the easiest to set up a Bitcoin node on a Raspberry Pi.
- You’ll need to download the OS, flash it on a microSD card and plug that into your Raspberry Pi. It takes about 20 mins. Here’s how to do it.
- Once set up, simple download the Bitcoin Node app and start the sync – it will take 3-4 days to fully sync to the blockchain. I know it’s annoying,ou will need to be patient.
- If you can, use an ethernet instead of WiFi. This will provide a more stable and reliable connection for your node.
- Once your Bitcoin node has synched, you can download the lightning node app from the Umbrel App store and move Sats to your self-hosted lightning node.
