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Bitcoin Node Setup

1. Hardware Requirements​

  • CPU: Multi-core processor.
  • Memory: Minimum 8GB RAM.
  • Storage: SSDs with at least 800GB of space to accommodate the full Bitcoin blockchain.

2. Bitcoin Core Setup​

Download and install the bitcoin binaries according to your operating system from the official Bitcoind Core registry. All programs in this guide are compatible with version 26.0.

3. Configuration​

bitcoind is configured through a main configuration file named bitcoin.conf.

Depending on the operating system, the configuration file should be placed under the corresponding path:

  • MacOS: /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin
  • Linux: /home/<username>/.bitcoin
  • Windows: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin

Both servers can utilize the following base parameter skeleton (adapted for the BTC signet network):

# Accept command line and JSON-RPC commands
server=1
# Enable transaction indexing
txindex=1
# RPC server settings
rpcuser=<rpc-username>
rpcpassword=<rpc-password>
# Optional: In case of non-mainnet BTC node,
# the following two lines specify the network that your
# node will operate; for this example, utilizing signet
signet=1
[signet]
# Port your bitcoin node will listen for incoming requests;
# below port is the canonical port for signet,
# for mainnet, typically 8332 is used
rpcport=38332
# Address your bitcoin node will listen for incoming requests
rpcbind=0.0.0.0
# Optional: Needed for remote node connectivity
rpcallowip=0.0.0.0/0

Notes:

  • Instead of hardcoding the RPC server password (rpcpassword) in the config, it is recommended to generate its salted hash and use the rpcauth field instead. To generate the salted hash, you can use this platform as reference - however, the salting operation should be executed locally. The resulting config value will look like this:
rpcauth=<rpc-password-salted-hash>
  • In case you will be connecting to BTC Mainnet network, ensure to remove the following config skeleton lines:
signet=1
[signet]

4. Start bitcoind​

4.1 Start the Bitcoin daemon​

bitcoind

4.2 Verify bitcoind is Running​

Check the status of bitcoind.

bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo

You should see information about the blockchain, indicating that bitcoind is running correctly.

5. Create a systemd Service for bitcoind (Optional)​

5.1 Create systemd service definition​

Run the following command, replacing your_username with your actual username:

cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/bitcoind.service
[Unit]
Description=Bitcoin daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/bitcoind -conf=/home/your_username/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf
ExecStop=/usr/local/bin/bitcoin-cli stop
User=your_username
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

5.2 Reload systemd manager configuration​

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

5.3 Enable the service to start on boot​

sudo systemctl enable bitcoind.service

5.4 Start the service​

sudo systemctl start bitcoind.service

6. Monitoring​

The bitcoind server availability can be polled through Prometheus Blackbox Exporter.

Bitcoin-specific Prometheus metrics can also be exposed by utilizing any open-source Prometheus bitcoind exporter (example).