How to operate a Bitcoin Cash Full Node (Bitcoin Unlimited) on Raspberry Pi?

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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-1.9.2.0-arm32.tar.gz
tar xvfz bch-unlimited-1.9.2.0-arm32.tar.gz
cd bch-unlimited-1.9.2.0/
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": 1090200,
  "protocolversion": 80003,
  "walletversion": 130000,
  "balance": 0.00000000,
  "blocks": 686293,
  "timeoffset": 0,
  "connections": 31,
  "peers_graphene": 12,
  "peers_xthinblock": 12,
  "peers_cmpctblock": 19,
  "proxy": "",
  "difficulty": 343055919627.4104,
  "testnet": false,
  "keypoololdest": 1578653662,
  "keypoolsize": 1000,
  "paytxfee": 0.00000000,
  "relayfee": 0.00001000,
  "status": "ready",
  "txindex": "not 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.

How does Bitcoin Cash work you can read here.