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A few weeks ago, Jamie Redman wrote an article about Bitcoin Cash full node. He mentioned there that a Bitcoin Cash full node can be executed on Raspberry Pi. Since I have such a full node and people asked me, I decided to write how I do it.

To execute a Bitcoin Cash full node on Raspberry Pi, I use:

Raspberry Pi 3 (32 Bit, 1 GB RAM, 16 GB SD-Card)

1 TB USB HDD

Bitcoin Unlimited full node software

Internet connection ↓ 90,0 Mbit/s ↑ 32,0 Mbit/s

I bought Raspberry Pi with the operating system pre-installed, so I didn't have to install it. If you want to install it yourself, you can read how to do it here .

I use a LAN cable to connect to my router. However, you can also make a Wi-Fi connection.

How to install Bitcoin Unlimited on Raspberry Pi you can read here . Which files arm32 or arm64 you need to download depends on which operating system you are using. I use the 32bit operating system.

I installed the node using the following commands:

wget https://www.bitcoinunlimited.info/downloads/bch-unlimited-1.9.0.0-arm32.tar.gz tar xvfz bch-unlimited-1.9.0.0-arm32.tar.gz cd bch-unlimited-1.9.0.0/ sudo mv ./bin/bitcoind /usr/local/bin/bitcoind sudo mv ./bin/bitcoin-cli /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-cli sudo mv ./bin/bitcoin-miner /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-miner sudo mv ./bin/bitcoin-tx /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-tx sudo mv ./bin/bitcoin-qt /usr/local/bin/bitcoin-qt sudo mv ./bin/test_bitcoin /usr/local/bin/test_bitcoin sudo mv ./include/bitcoinconsensus.h /usr/local/include/bitcoinconsensus.h sudo mv ./lib/libbitcoinconsensus.so /usr/local/lib/libbitcoinconsensus.so sudo mv ./lib/libbitcoinconsensus.so.0 /usr/local/lib/libbitcoinconsensus.so.0 sudo mv ./lib/libbitcoinconsensus.so.0.0.0 /usr/local/lib/libbitcoinconsensus.so.0.0.0 sudo mv ./lib/libbitcoincash.so /usr/local/lib/. sudo mv ./lib/libbitcoincash.so.0 /usr/local/lib/. sudo mv ./lib/libbitcoincash.so.0.0.0 /usr/local/lib/. sudo mv ./share/* /usr/local/share/.

I don't connect my Raspberry Pi to the monitor and keyboard, but do everything remote.

Downloading the complete blockchain on Raspberry Pi takes a long time, so I connected my USB hard drive to my PC and downloaded it there. Therefore I installed the Windows version of Bitcoin Unlimited on my PC. I have created a folder "Bitcoin" on the USB hard disk for the blockchain, but you can name the folder as you like. Then I started bitcoin-qt and specified the directory "Bitcoin" as target for the data.

Downloading the blockchain took me about 22 hours (I did it a few days ago).

After downloading the Blockchain to the PC, I closed bitcoin-qt and connected the hard disk to the Raspberry Pi via a USB cable. It was mounted there automatically and can be accessed as /media/pi/Volume. Now I had to tell my BU node on the Raspberry Pi where the blockchain is located. To do this I opened the file bitcoin.conf using nano (if the file does not yet exist, it must be created):

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ nano /home/pi/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

and entered the following line:

datadir=/media/pi/Volume/Bitcoin

Now I have started my BU node on the Raspberry Pi:

bitcoind -daemon

When my node is running, I can execute various commands. To see which ones, I type:

bitcoin-cli help

For example using the parameter getinfo:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ bitcoin-cli getinfo { "version": 1070000, "protocolversion": 80003, "walletversion": 130000, "balance": 0.00000000, "blocks": 611003, "timeoffset": 0, "connections": 21, "peers_graphene": 9, "peers_xthinblock": 9, "peers_cmpctblock": 18, "proxy": "", "difficulty": 352048068313.6447, "testnet": false, "keypoololdest": 1574687063, "keypoolsize": 101, "paytxfee": 0.00000000, "relayfee": 0.00001000, "status": "ready", "errors": "", "fork": "Bitcoin Cash" }

I get the general information about my node. If I use the parameter getmempoolinfo:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ bitcoin-cli getmempoolinfo { "size": 313, "bytes": 105558, "usage": 268480, "maxmempool": 300000000, "mempoolminfee": 0.00000000, "tps": 0.17, "peak_tps": 7.83 }

I'm getting the informations on the mempool.

I have opened port 8333 in my firewall on the router so that my node can be reached on the Internet. I can check it here.

The bitcoinid process requires only about 5% CPU usage and 31% RAM.

top - 14:16:18 up 17:10, 3 users, load average: 0,14, 0,14, 0,08 Tasks: 134 total, 1 running, 133 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie %Cpu(s): 1,4 us, 0,4 sy, 0,0 ni, 98,2 id, 0,0 wa, 0,0 hi, 0,0 si, 0,0 st MiB Mem : 922,1 total, 37,1 free, 381,8 used, 503,2 buff/cache MiB Swap: 100,0 total, 62,2 free, 37,8 used. 479,0 avail Mem PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 888 pi 20 0 625044 299700 3872 S 5,6 31,7 65:19.41 bitcoind 2250 pi 20 0 10188 2796 2436 R 1,3 0,3 0:00.40 top

My Raspberry Pi (including the hard disk) consumes about 5 to 6 watts of power.

This causes less than 1 € electricity costs per month.

Since I have a raspberry pi, I use it for other purposes. For example, I installed the network-wide advertising blocking pi.hole there.

PS

I recommend that you make a copy of the Blockchain from time to time.