186 sats \ 5 replies \ @chairman_pretense 20 Oct 2023 \ on: Do you self host? tech
Buy a NUC or cheap mini PC and run openmediavault for self hosting services. With Tailscale you can access your data on all your devices easily.
Running a node is pretty useless unless you're running a proper lightning routing node, in which case you want a more robust setup than Umbrel.
For self custodial lightning spending wallets, use a mobile node like Blixt or Phoenix.
For cold storage run Bitcoin Core on a laptop with Sparrow (keys managed with a good hardware device like Coldcard, Jade or Seedsigner). Once you've done the initial block download, you don't really need to run it 24/7 as catching up on a few days or even weeks is pretty quick on the rare moments you want to move on chain funds.
What you've described in the last bit is my current setup. I run a pruned Bitcoin Core node when I care to see the UTXO set. I am completely happy as is but a part of me feels like a hack using things like gmail.
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It's the best, simplest setup I reckon. For self hosting you just want a basic box to run docker containers on. It's really easy to spin things up with docker compose. Which is basically what Umbrel OS is -- a fancy front end for Docker.
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Running a node is pretty useless unless you're running a proper lightning routing node
It isn't. You can run node and use it for Bitcoin onchain payments too.
For Lightning I recommend having setup with two SSDs in a mirror.
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You're right, what I meant is running a dedicated machine as a node isn't needed unless you need always on lightning routing.
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There are other use cases where you might want always on Bitcoin node at home. For example, running Electrum server there and connecting wallet(s) on your mobile phone to it.
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