How much does it cost you to run a bitcoin node? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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How much does it cost you to run a bitcoin node?

4364 sats \ 33 comments \ @Scoresby 8 Mar bitcoin

Is running a node expensive?

Less than $1 per month47.7%

Less than $5 per month22.7%

Less than $10 per month18.2%

Less than $25 per month11.4%

44 votes \ poll ended

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67 sats \ 6 replies \ @DarthCoin 8 Mar freebie

The question is ambiguous. Which type of node?

private or public
business or personal
Only Core or also LN
self-hosted or remote hosted
what hardware I use... could be a damn server or a fucking mobile device.
you talk about cost of electricity / maintenance or also about the cost of managing the liquidity ?

If is a personal Bitcoin Core I never thought about that and I don't care how much will be.

If is a personal BTC Core + LN It doesn't matter, it is to secure my wallets.

If is a business node Then I have to see how much is the return to sustain the cost of a remote hosting or even a self hosting. Running a professional LN node is cheap and require investment. For a small merchant that sells bananas on the street will be quite costly to run a remote node on Voltage or whatever VPS + LN channels management.

You see ? Is really hard to just vote an answer that means nothing.

11 sats \ 5 replies \ @Scoresby OP 8 Mar

Fair: I meant personal bitcoin node (question covers whether you do it yourself or pay for hosting). I guess I could have added not a LN node too, but I think it is clear that bitcoin node is not a LN node.

44 sats \ 4 replies \ @DarthCoin 8 Mar

a simple bitcoin core node you can run it for zero cost. You don't need a fancy box for that. You don't even need a machine for that if want to go extreme.

I think it is clear that bitcoin node is not a LN node.

(For) What is then?

31 sats \ 3 replies \ @Scoresby OP 8 Mar

If people mean a LN node they usually say LN node. I guess the set specified by bitcoin node could include LN nodes, but mostly, people seem to say bitcoin node when they refer to software that syncs with the block chain and they seem to say LN node when they mean an additional node that watches/manages lightning channels.

By the way: do you know of a mobile wallet that runs a bitcoin full node? (By full I mean pruned or otherwise, but that downloads and verifies every block)?

129 sats \ 2 replies \ @DarthCoin 8 Mar

Blixt and Zeus, using neutrino. Also Breez, but they will move away from that model to Greenlight.

What people have a wrong understanding of "running a full node" is that they have to run a dedicated machine 24/7/365. And is quite wrong that assumption. Just to "verify" your own transactions you need just a junky laptop with bitcoin core software and open it only when you need it.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby OP 8 Mar

Thanks. I've never used Blixt. I need to have a look at it.

34 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 8 Mar

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237 sats \ 2 replies \ @benthecarman 8 Mar freebie

old laptop under my bed, only real cost is the electricity

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @m00ninite 9 Mar

Mine is in my closet. Keeps the coats warm!

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby OP 8 Mar

Suddenly, we all have a use for those old devices...

54 sats \ 2 replies \ @034b483ee7 8 Mar

Likely doesn't matter in a self-hosting environment. I been running a pruned Bitcoin node on Oracle Cloud for over a year at ZERO cost.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby OP 8 Mar

Pruned node on cloud provider is interesting. Do you pay for hosting already and just tack it on or have the account specifically for the node?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @021da48107 8 Mar freebie

Oracle has an "always free" you can easily run a pruned node in that tier for free forever.

51 sats \ 1 reply \ @frostdragon 8 Mar

I actually have no idea. It's just a raspberry pi zero, I can't imagine it's much, but even if it were $20/m I wouldn't really care.

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby OP 8 Mar

Unless you have a very high energy cost, it's less than $5, probably less than $1.

What I'm getting at is that cost probably isn't a barrier for most people in US and Europe.

35 sats \ 0 replies \ @SpaceHodler 8 Mar

I think mine is less than $1 per month. If it were running at full 6W power it would be $1.60, but it probably isn't.

34 sats \ 0 replies \ @beorange 8 Mar

If it is on the cloud, it gets expensive. If it is on your raspberry pi, it is quite cheap, especially if you live in a place with cheap electricity.

34 sats \ 0 replies \ @orthwyrm 8 Mar

I run a node on a low grade laptop that cost peanuts.

Bandwidth is minimal and doesn't push me towards a higher threshold for my internet usage.

That leaves energy costs, which I'm too lazy to estimate but I guess can't be more than $5 / month.

34 sats \ 4 replies \ @kepford 8 Mar

It depends on the computer power usage. IMO compared to the value it provides me, its free.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Scoresby OP 8 Mar

Yes. If you do it yourself and you didn't spend too much on specialized hardware, it can get close to free. Also you don't have keep it on all the time.

Next question is how much bigger can blocks get without making running a node expensive?

44 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 8 Mar

There is zero need for specialize hardware. You can buy a used 1 liter PC off Ebay for around $100. That is unless your time is worth more and you are referring to pre-setup solutions like Start9. It actually takes very little resources to run a node. But maybe I'm misunderstanding you.

I don't know the answer to your second question. I think bigger blocks is about many things. Mining, network usage, disk space, and processing power. I wasn't really involved back during the block size wars but I suspect block size could increase at some point in the future depending on the advancement of baseline computing power.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby OP 8 Mar freebie

Any old computer will probably get the job done. I was referring to the prefab solutions that you see advertised everywhere. I'm assuming some people must use those, otherwise where would those companies get their advertising budgets?

Regarding the blocksize question: In talking to nonbitcoiners, I've often said that the network gets its decentralization and censorship resistance from lots of people running nodes. Therefore we should make it cheap to do this. And that that was one of the big reasons for not increasing block size.

Maybe this is just a spurious argument that I have blindly accepted, but it makes sense to me.

But then I was wondering, do people feel like running a node is expensive? Especially in the situation with recent complaints about non transaction data filling blocks. Hence my poll.

68 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 8 Mar

There will always be a business for people whose time is worth more than the savings and learning from doing the work. The prices on these solutions are very good IMO. I don't buy them because I'd rather do it myself.

Yeah, I understand what you are saying about being expensive. That's a relative question of course as you know. I do not believe most people in bitcoin will ever run a node. I do believe we will see many many more nodes than are being run today but based on people's behaviors in other areas most are too lazy. That's fine by me. I'm not basing my hope on the actions of others. There will always be an elect group of bitcoiners that carry the torch. I'm all for lowing the bar. Companies making it easy, nodes being baked into hardware that does other things. I can see that happening. It will get easier and cheaper. It will get cheaper the faster we get to a bitcoin standard.

17 sats \ 7 replies \ @OT 8 Mar

I'm not sure about the running costs. It would be much.

The 2tb SSD cost a few hundred dollars and the computer I got for free.

0 sats \ 6 replies \ @Scoresby OP 8 Mar

I'm still hanging on with 1tb. Probably need to start thinking about that.

34 sats \ 4 replies \ @OT 8 Mar

My problem with running a node is the internet speed. I think the recent inscription/BRC20 stuff is making it harder to sync and stay insync

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @021da48107 8 Mar

Do you have any data on this? Inscriptions or not the block size has a max.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @OT 8 Mar

TBH I don't have any data and wouldn't know how to look.

I thought it could have been the RAM so I upgraded last year but still having the same issues. So its either the internet, or excess on chain data.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @m00ninite 9 Mar

Unless you're on dial-up or some kind of mobile network, you shouldn't be having trouble downloading even full blocks. It's only a couple megabytes every 10 minutes. Could be something else going on

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 9 Mar

Must be then...

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @m00ninite 9 Mar

I'd just prune. 1tb is plenty

17 sats \ 0 replies \ @SaToSHiWoMaN 8 Mar outlawed

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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SaToSHiWoMaN 8 Mar outlawed

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