Running Your Own Bitcoin Node
Market Recap
Risk Assets Dive
Running Your Own Bitcoin Node
Financial sovereignty. These are words that seem to be a myth in today's world. With the events that have transpired in Canada this week, we thought it would be appropriate to discuss the ability for someone to be genuinely self-sovereign from a financial perspective. This starts with the ability for someone to operate and run their own Bitcoin node. Bitcoin is an apolitical, non-discretionary, self-sovereign money.
Canada Recap
As a result of the protests in Canada this week, Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act. Part of this act gave Canada's banks the ability to freeze the personal or corporate bank accounts of anyone linked with the protests without a court order. At the whim of the government, they have taken away the right you have to your own hard-earned capital. It makes you think, if the government can deny you access to your assets because they aren't happy with your actions, are they really your assets in the first place?
Whether the protests are right or wrong is not something we are here to pass judgment on, but we unequivocally support a person's right to protest, no matter what they believe. Protests have never been for the benefit of the government; we cannot name a time that a government has supported a protest in history. Where would we be today without the Woman's Suffrage Parade, the March on Washington, South Africa's National Day of Protest, Tiananmen Square or Gandhi's Salt March? Protests have been humans biggest tool of change for a long time.
It seems Trudeau has forgotten his own words from just last year regarding the New Delhi farmer's protests that "Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest".
What is a Node?
A bitcoin node is a hardware device that runs the software of the Bitcoin network and stores a complete copy of the Bitcoin ledger. A node determines if the transactions within a block are true before adding it to the chain. The node does this automatically by looking back at all previous transactions and ensuring the new transactions don't contradict what has happened before. If you run a Bitcoin node, you can think of yourself as a referee enforcing the rules of the game; you are playing your part in protecting the network from attacks or fraud.
Why Run A Node?
How does running a node contribute to ones financial self-sovereignty? Just how it is often said that if it is "Not your Keys, Not your Bitcoin", the same can be applied to nodes, "Not your Node, Not your Rules". By running your own node, you can independently verify that the blockchain and the transactions you want to process are genuine. You do not have to rely on a third party to provide you with information who may, for whatever reason, have malicious intent.
So, in summary, the two reasons to run a node are that it increases the security of the transactions you conduct as a user and contributes to the overall health and security of the Bitcoin network.
How Do You Run a Node?
Fortunately, running a Bitcoin node is relatively easy. It has one of the lowest resource requirements of any blockchain, and the software is easy to download. There are, however, certain costs you need to be aware of.
Costs and Minimum Requirements
The following are the minimum requirements you need to run a node in the first pace:
Desktop or laptop hardware running recent versions of Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.
7 gigabytes of free disk space, accessible at a minimum read/write speed of 100 MB/s.
2 gigabytes of memory (RAM)
A broadband Internet connection with upload speeds of at least 400 kilobits (50 kilobytes) per second
An unmetered connection, a connection with high upload limits, or a connection you regularly monitor to ensure it doesn't exceed its upload limits. It's common for full nodes on high-speed connections to use 200 gigabytes upload or more a month. Download usage is around 20 gigabytes a month, plus around an additional 400 gigabytes the first time you start your node.
6 hours a day that your full node can be left running. (You can do other things with your computer while running a full node.) More hours would be better, and best of all would be if you could run your node continuously.
Acquiring the above hardware is the main cost of setting up a Bitcoin node. However, most computers nowadays should be able to handle the above. The other ongoing cost is the internet and electricity needed to keep the computer on and download the latest blocks.
Once you have the minimum hardware, you can begin setting up your node. The below is based on Windows, but each operating system should be similar.
Step 1: Download The Bitcoin Core Software
To start the process of running a node, you need to download and install the Bitcoin Core software.
Go to the Bitcoin Core download page
On the left, Click Download Bitcoin Core or beneath that button, click the appropriate operating system download link
The next step is optional and for those who are more technically inclined (if you know how to use PGP). This involves verifying the release signatures, and you can see the guide to do that here.
The download of the software should have started and shouldn't take too long.
Step 2: Start Installing the Bitcoin Core Software
Click on the downloaded file
The below should appear and click Next
Choose your preferred destination folder for it to be installed.
Click Next
Select the Start Menu folder in which you would like to create the program's shortcuts.
Click Install
Once installation is complete, click Next
Select Run Bitcoin Core on the next page and click Finish
Step 3: Download The Blockchain
You will now see the following screen:
Choose your preferred data directory, either default or custom. Make sure that you have over 400GB available.
We suggest you do not limit blockchain storage and keep a full copy of the ledger; however if you don't have the space, you can opt to only keep a small portion of it.
Click OK
Once you have clicked OK, your computer will start downloading the entire history of the Bitcoin blockchain, all the way back to the earliest transactions in 2009.
This step will take several days to weeks to complete; as you can imagine, it is a lot of data and has a high resource requirement. You can continue to use your computer during this time, but it may slow down the process. You can stop the Bitcoin Core software at any time by closing it. Once you open it again, it will resume from the point where it stopped.
Once the download of the entire blockchain is complete, you can now use it as either a wallet or just let it run in the background to support the Bitcoin network.
To support the network, make sure it is always running and that it is allowed to start automatically when you switch your computer on; this can be found under Settings -> Options-> Main. You must also allow inbound connections, which you can find under Settings-> Options-> Network.
At face value, choosing to run your own node may not have very many benefits for the average person and may be too technical to care about. However, after buying your first bitcoin, it truly is the first step towards achieving true financial sovereignty. It allows you to trust not your government or banking institutions, but yourself. Financial sovereignty does come with its own risks, and as an individual, you need to decide if they are worth it. However, keeping a portion of your wealth in something that isn't accessible to anyone but yourself may be worth it in the long run.
Notable Articles and News Stories This Week:
JPMorgan Is the First Bank Into the Metaverse, Looks at Business Opportunities
The largest bank in the U.S., JPMorgan said it has become the first lender to arrive in the metaverse, having opened a lounge in Decentraland, a virtual world based on blockchain technology.
As well as the unveiling of the Onyx lounge (the name refers to the bank's suite of permissioned Ethereum-based services), JPMorgan also released a paper exploring how businesses can find opportunities in the metaverse.
"There is a lot of client interest to learn more about the metaverse," Christine Moy, JPMorgan's head of crypto and the metaverse, said in an email. "We put together our white paper to help clients cut through the noise and highlight what the current reality is, and what needs to be built next in technology, commercial infrastructure, privacy/identity and workforce, in order to maximize the full potential of our lives in the metaverse."
Read more about the move here
Jobless Data Makes March Rate Hike More Likely
US jobless claims rose last week after three straight weeks of declines. Unemployment still remains at a historic low, however, a key metric that may mean hawkish action from the Federal Reserve is to come.
Initial jobless claims rose to a seasonally adjusted 248,000 last week, up from 225,000 the prior week, according to data from the Department of Labor. Continuing claims, which provide insight into the number of citizens receiving state unemployment benefits, declined to 1.59 million, down from 1.62 million the week prior.
The largely positive report comes after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated that maximum employment is a key goal that must be met before the Fed will raise interest rates or taper asset purchases.
Read more here
Andrew Yang Turns to DAO in Web3 Lobbying Push
Former presidential and NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Yang is aiming to launch a DAO to get lobbying dollars and the lawmakers they influence on board with Web3.
Yang announced the initiative, called Lobby3, in a Twitter post Thursday. After its lobbying infrastructure is built, a portion of the proceeds will fund a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). The minting of Lobby3 tokens is set for Feb. 28.
It is a blockchain-driven pivot from Humanity Forward, a nonprofit launched by Yang in 2020 focused on anti-poverty measures, including the child tax credit.
Read more about the DAO here
Whilst we all have the option to look, to seek to understand, it’s often easier not to. Bitcoin, Ethereum and distributed ledger technology are complex systems that require significant due diligence. At Etherbridge, we aim to lower the barriers to understanding this fast-growing digital economy.
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This is not financial advice. All opinions expressed here are our own. We encourage investors to do their own research before making any investments.