Thread by @CitizenBitcoin

1/ With all this talk about Ethereum node nightmares, I thought I'd write up a brief thread about my experience with running bitcoin nodes.

In early 2018 I bought an ACEPC T11 ($120) and a 2.5" SATA 7200 RPM 1 TB Western Digital WD Black HDD ($66) from Amazon.

2/ I installed Linux, Bitcoin Core and LND, opened channels and bought a some stickers.

The ACEPC T11 comes with Windows 10 preinstalled on an internal SD. I wanted to try out @pierre_rochard's Node Launcher so I fired up Windows, installed it and am syncing from genesis now.

3/ I bought a @CasaHODL node when they were announced, got mine Nov 2018. I bought it right away because they have a great product team (shout out @jeremyrwelch, @lopp and @Nneuman) and because full hardware nodes like it, @nodl_it and @lightninginabox are doing important work.

4/ My Casa node has over 20 channels: 12 were manually created via the Casa UI, and 8 autopilot channels. I have used it to receive funds from @OpenNodeCo for citizenbitcoin.shop ⚡️ sales, to tip via @tippin_me, to pay for goods, and to pass the #LNTrustChain torch.

5/ Ad break: connect with my bitcoin lightning node, I'll reciprocate! :)

Alias: CitizenLightning

028d7b9a15f7f45f9116a6b6f1f820ffc38b3b4323e109fdcf7e04ecd12f1db7a0@208.107.69.250:9375

6/ Back to the ACEPC Windows node: my plan is to install and manage the bitcoin and lightning nodes with Node Launcher. Then install and connect @BtcpayServer to accept LN payments to citizenbitcoin.shop directly to my own node. @OpenNodeCo is great but it is also a TTP.

7/ I will continue to run, test and support the products and software that will pave the road for bitcoin and lightning network. Not only is it damn fun, it is seriously important.

8/ I run these two nodes on relatively cheap, accessible hardware and software ($190 and $300) on a $55/month, 100 MBPS broadband connection in the USA.

Full node operators are a critical component of bitcoin's decentralized governance and so, then, is the ability to run one.

9/ I have heard it takes Raspberry Pis about 6 weeks to sync from genesis. The Intel Atom x5 processor and 4GB of DDR3 RAM took about 3 weeks back at the start of 2018. This time it's been running for 8 days and it's about 1 year and 16 weeks behind right now.

10/ Decentralization is critical for censorship, inflation and confiscation resistance for these are all flaws of centralization. Decentralization is a spectrum and more is generally better, though I'd say it is of decreasing importance as a network becomes more decentralized.

11/ Measuring or defining decentralization is part art and part science. We arrive at a social consensus, or Schelling point, about the rules and definitions of Nakamoto consensus.

12/ Bitcoin has chosen to scale in a way that prioritizes more decentralization than we have now, and I agree with the conclusion that we need more network and governance decentralization than we have now, certainly not less.

13/ All bitcoin forks are far more centralized than bitcoin and are trending in the wrong direction. It is hard to achieve true network decentralization and we can see from the Internet that only one network and protocol stack has achieved it to such a degree.

14/ The UI/UX experience is coming along. It is much easier now than just 14 months ago when I had to use the Linux command line to make Lightning work. UI/UX will continue to improve of course, enabling bitcoin's wave's of technical adoption up the S curve.

15/ So, hodl, spend, stack, buidl, learn, teach and carry on bitcoiners! It looks like we're on the right path, the path with by far the best shot, at achieving the separation of money and state, of true economic and financial self-sovereignty.

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16/ Postscript: forgot but wanted to mention that this is all not super private yet either. I endeavor to learn to run all this on Tor and start using @wasabiwallet, and agree with most bitcoiners that we should also prioritize privacy.