What is a bitcoin node?
Simply put, the node is your computer.
Every person in the world who would like to participate in the Bitcoin network can do so by verifying transactions and blocks.
Participation is completely voluntary and democratic as long as there is an Internet connection, people of any background, geographic regions, status or gender can access and contribute to the free open Bitcoin system.
This is what makes it decentralized among other features.
How can anyone operate a bitcoin node?
Download Bitcoin kernel:
There are some options from different kernels, but there is a kernel and one original program whose code is based on the program developed by the inventor of Bitcoin "Satoshi Nakamoto".
The bitcoin kernel can be downloaded from the bitcoin.org website which allows for transaction and block verification.
Bitcoin 0.18.0 kernel:
Just a few months ago, developers published the new version 0.18.0 of what is also called the full Bitcoin Core client.
A new version is released approximately every three months for the first time. This includes interaction with hardware wallets, Ledger, Trezor, Digital BitBox and KeepKey, allowing users to achieve a higher level of security.
Bitcoin node requirements:
The minimum requirements on any operating system are:
Disk space is 5 GB.
256 MB RAM.
A full 195GB download is required when starting the Bitcoin kernel for the first time.
Now you are ready to access the blockchain completely.
After installation, you will have to wait until the initial synchronization of the entire bitcoin block takes place, which may take several days depending on the bandwidth and number of nodes associated with the bitcoin.
Benefits of running a bitcoin node:
It may take some technical knowledge and the need to know the different commands to perform or display a list of transactions, to create new addresses, etc., but the result of using your own node is a guarantee of more privacy and higher security, with less fees.
And if you are in a hurry and want to speed up the transaction, you can do so simply by adding higher fees in the settings.
This is something that cannot be done if you are storing and using centralized wallets or platforms where you do not have the freedom to control the speed and security of your assets.
Running the node ensures that your Bitcoin transactions are verified and sent to anyone you do business with, which puts the ability to send unsupervised money around the world while contributing to the security, growth and strength of the Bitcoin network itself.
And more benefits:
Besides these reasons, you are now fully contributing to keeping the Bitcoin network in a decentralized manner and keeping it alive, thus getting closer to the future where governments and other authorities cannot stop the process and cannot interfere with the ownership of your money.
In the sense of obtaining financial independence in terms of transactions, of course, with more technical experience, and therefore it is worth the experience.
Trust is established by the network without the need for a third party to guarantee or verify the transaction.
If you run a node, that doesn't mean that you are also mining bitcoins.