A bitcoin syncing node is a program that fully validates transactions and downloads blocks on the blockchain. Almost Every full node also help the network of nodes by accepting the transactions and blocks of blockchain from other full syncing nodes. These nodes helps in validating those transactions and blocks, and then relaying them to the further full syncing nodes of bitcoin.
Most of the full syncing nodes also give lightweight clients so that they can send their transactions on to the network and notify them when a transaction are executed successfully. If not a specific number of nodes perform this function, clients won't be able to connect through the peer-to-peer network"”they'll have to use centralized services instead.
Many people and organizations Prefer to run full nodes using their spare computing and bandwidth resources, also, more volunteers are needed to allow Bitcoin to continue to grow.
Minimum Requirements for linux setup
Bitcoin Core full syncing nodes have some certain requirements which are necessary. If you try running a bitcoin node on weak hardware, it may work"”but you'll likely spend more time dealing with issues. The suggested minimum requirement for the node is given below.
- Any machine (can be Cloud, Desktop or laptop hardware) running recent versions of Linux(can be ubuntu, centos, Redhat etc).
- 350 gigabytes of free disk space, accessible at a minimum read/write speed of 100 MB/s(Preferred SSD).
- 4 gigabytes of memory (RAM)
- An Internet connection with upload speeds of at least 400 kilobits (50 kilobytes) per second
- A connection with high upload limits, or a connection you regularly monitor to ensure it doesn't exceed its upload limits.
- Your full node can be left running. (You can do other things with your computer while running a full node.) It is preferred if you can run your node continuously.
Steps for running blockchain node on docker compose
1.Create the following File structure:
|-- bitcoind_src/
| `-- Dockerfile
| `-- bitcoin.conf
|-- docker-compose.yml
2.Copy the Dockerfile in the mentioned path
|
FROM ubuntu:16.04
RUN apt-get update -y && \
apt-get install software-properties-common -y && \
apt-get install wget
ENV BITCOIN_VER="0.17.0.1"
ENV BITCOIN_FOLDER_VER="0.17.0"
ENV BITCOIN_SHASUM="6ccc675ee91522eee5785457e922d8a155e4eb7d5524bd130eb0ef0f0c4a6008"
WORKDIR /tmp
RUN wget -O bitcoin-${BITCOIN_VER}-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz https://bitcoin.org/bin/bitcoin-core-${BITCOIN_VER}/bitcoin-${BITCOIN_VER}-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
RUN CURRENTHASH=$(sha256sum "bitcoin-${BITCOIN_VER}-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz" | cut -d' ' -f1); \
if [ "${CURRENTHASH}" = "${BITCOIN_SHASUM}" ] ; \
then echo "checksum ok"; \
else echo "checksum failed for bitcoin-${BITCOIN_VER}-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz"; exit 255 ; \
fi
RUN tar -xvzf bitcoin-${BITCOIN_VER}-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
RUN install -C -m 755 -o root -g root --backup=off bitcoin-${BITCOIN_FOLDER_VER}/bin/* /usr/bin/
RUN rm bitcoin-${BITCOIN_VER}-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz && rm -rf bitcoin-${BITCOIN_FOLDER_VER}
RUN apt update
RUN apt install curl -y
RUN mkdir -p /root/.bitcoin/
WORKDIR /root/.bitcoin/
COPY ./bitcoin.conf /root/.bitcoin/
COPY ./wallet.sh /root/.bitcoin/
RUN chmod +x /root/.bitcoin/wallet.sh
EXPOSE 8332 8333 18332 18333
CMD ["/usr/bin/bitcoind", "-deprecatedrpc=accounts"]
|
3.Copy the bitcoin.conf on the mentioned path
|
server=1
testnet=1
rpcuser=RPC_user
rpcpassword=RPC_password
rpcallowip=0.0.0.0/0
rpcport=8332
|
4.Copy the docker-compose.yml on the mentioned path
|
version: '3'
services:
bitcoin:
build: build_src
container_name: bitcoin
restart: always
networks:
- "bitcoin"
volumes:
- ./data/bitcoin:/root/.bitcoin
- ./build_src/bitcoin.conf:/root/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf
ports:
- "8333:8333"
- "8332:8332"
- "18333:18333"
- "18332:18332"
networks:
bitcoin:
driver: bridge
|
6.Run the following commands to interact with bitcoin node on docker compose.
|
To Start bitcoin Node
|
docker-compose start bitcoin
|
|
To Stop bitcoin Node
|
docker-compose stop bitcoin
|
|
To check bitcoin Node Status
|
docker-compose exec bitcoin bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo
|
