Thread by @KeithMukai

1/ #Bitcoin advocates always say you should run your own full node but the arguments for why are often murky or esoteric ("because freedom!").

As I've taken the dive I'm seeing more and more substantive reasons. Not abstract. Not philosophical. Do X and you gain Y.

Thread:

2/ @ElectrumWallet requires a full node

- Manage your hardware wallets w/out handing all past & future tx info to Ledger Live, etc.
- Easily set up your own multisig wallets. No need for partial custodial services like Casa.
- Privacy-enhancing coin labeling & utxo selection.

2.b./ (note: The Electrum ecosystem is a bit confusing at first. I'm running electrum-personal-server on my full node and connecting to it on my laptop via the Electrum client)

3/ Why care about utxo selection?

Coinbase/Chainalysis might not know you have a Binance account. But if you send a 0.2btc tx that merges a 0.1btc Coinbase utxo with a 0.1btc Binance utxo, you've now linked your account identities together.

Know which utxos you're spending!

4/ Trustless coin joins via @wasabiwallet or @SamouraiWallet require a full node.

- Anonymize your utxos by merging your inputs w/lots of others, resulting in indistinguishable outputs that go their separate ways.
- Makes the math blow up on Chainalysis attempts to track people.

4.b./ (to be fair I'm not yet fully convinced that I need to coin join my KYCed utxos. But leaning towards it. This area feels more philosophical than tangible but eager to hear arguments)

5/ Lightning Network node requires a full node.

- Honestly wasn't that pumped about this one until I tried @sparkswap to buy btc w/fiat and get it instantly delivered to my LN node.
- Equally significant: LND + Loop out to move LN funds out to on-chain BTC.

5.b/ This is a big deal (if it all works; haven't actually set up LND or Loop out yet).

Consider some of the alternatives:

Cash App: Instant bank xfers, 1.75% fee
Coinbase: slow xfers, 0.5% spread + variable high fees
Coinbase Pro: slow xfers, no spread, 0.5% fee

Versus...

5.c/ ...Sparkswap + LND Loop Out:

- Instant ACH bank xfers.
- Tiny ~0.15% spread.
- No other fees.
- Instant non-custodial delivery via LN.
- Loop out of LN to on-chain btc (standard btc tx fee).

tldr: Fastest, nearly free, and non-custodial. But, yes, a bit more work.

6/ Private block explorer (e.g. btc-rpc-explorer)

- Explore the blockchain data, look up past txs, validate coin join outputs, etc. w/out leaking privacy to a third-party explorer (doing a coin join & then linking your IP to look up that tx is dumb!).

7/ That's the list so far. And it's only been a few weeks!

Multisig is huge for me. Playing with coin joins is fascinating. Happy to implement better utxo privacy practices. Nearly free fiat-to-LN-to-btc sounds amazing.

Unlock the full power of #bitcoin. Run your own full node.