Excited to finally be spinning up a node, after contemplating for awhile, but always deciding to buy more Bitcoin (and shitcoins in the past, don't hate me I already know). Finally decided to just do it, all my hardware arrived today and I assembled everything. Took only about ~20 minutes to put together/organize, and I've been downloading the chain for the past hour or so. Approaching 5% downloaded, so I am hopeful it will only take a day or two, but know that more recent blocks will take longer. After that comes the Lightning Network and maybe some other apps like RoboSats. What really put me over the edge and made me interested was finally seeing and using the lightning network and seeing the promise that it holds. I am really excited to be running a node and contributing beyond just purchasing BTC. I am not super technical, but hopefully someone else sees this and feels encouraged to give it a try themselves, it's easier than most realize. Bitcoin needs decentralization and requires people to do their part!
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @scottathan 2 May 2023
Good man
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @beorange 2 May 2023
Indeed, people need to see for themselves to understand that the claims about the potential of the lightning network are not exaggerated. It definitely provides the Bitcoin ecosystem the ability to tackle "use cases" and "user needs" that the base layer is not fit for.
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0 sats \ 4 replies \ @gnilma 2 May 2023
Good for you! Sounds like you went with one of them DIY node in a box packages. Mind disclosing which one?
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Turdinthepunchbowl OP 2 May 2023
Raspbery Pi 4 (8GB RAM) with a 2TB SSD. Been syncing for about a day. Went rather quickly to get to 32% synced this morning, but only up to 46% now, about 4 years behind. Not sure if others have experience, but I believe as you approach current date the validation takes much longer due to the amount of transactions/data on more recent blocks. Right now I am thinking it could take 3 or more days to fully sync. I have 500 mbps up/down, but where I've set my node up I get more like 200-250 mbps.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @gnilma 2 May 2023
I also have a Pi 4 and mine is running umbrel.
Yea, recent blocks contain more transactions and take longer to download / validate. It will eventually get fully synced anyways. That’s when the fun starts.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Turdinthepunchbowl OP 3 May 2023
Yep, forgot to add I am using Umbrel. Seems to be what is recommended a lot and didnt look too much into alternatives.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @gnilma 3 May 2023
Umbrel is a pretty good node in a package solution, but they tend to throw a lot of stuff onto their app store without too much rigorous testing. So, beware and understand what you are installing. Especially if you decide to run your lightning node on the Umbrel, then you will be having funds on the node, and should be extra careful. Try not to put any meaningful amount of coin on there.
Also, the other day, I saw this post about Uptime Kuma for Umbrel results in suspicious connection attempts. Check it out.
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