Bitcoin Full Node

This project sets up a minimal Bitcoin full node with the maximum privacy.

• Full blockchain state
• Uses Knots to fight the spam
• Enforces Tor or i2p for all connections
• Acts as Tor Relay to help the Tor network
• Acts as a i2p Router to help the i2p network
• Uses Alpine Linux for lightweight images
• Compiled from source for optimized binary
• GPG Signature verification for all components

Images size:

• Knots: 25.8 MB
• Tor client: 27.9 MB
• Tor relay: 28.1 MB
• i2p: 24.2 MB

First time setup instructions

1. Install Docker and Docker Compose on your system:

   • Docker installation guide
   • Docker Compose installation guide

2. Edit the .env file:

# directories where persistent data will be stored
KNOTS_DATA=/mnt/hdd/bitcoin/knots
TOR_DATA=/var/lib/bitcoin/tor
I2P_DATA=/var/lib/bitcoin/i2pd

# user ID that owns the data directories, will be used to run the containers
UID=1000

# your host machine public IP address, used by Tor and i2p to advertise the service
HOST_PUBLIC_IP=87.19.107.144

# RPC credentials for Knots
RPC_USER=your_rpc_user
RPC_PASSWORD=your_rpc_password

# Tor control credentials used internally
TOR_CONTROL_PASSWORD=your_tor_control_password
TOR_CONTROL_HASHED_PASSWORD=16:ADDBD7CF108C995F60F831F115BA5EB95322FC4645433CDEB8948A57DF

WARNING: if you already have tor installed on your system, make sure that your TOR_DATA directory is not the same as the one already used by your system tor installation. One is used inside the containers, the other is used by your system tor service.

WARNING: if you plan to run the node for multiple sessions, make sure that the HOST_PUBLIC_IP is up to date with the current public IP of your host machine. It is strongly recommended to use a static IP

3. Build the Docker images:

   docker-compose build

Run the services

docker-compose up -d   # Start
docker-compose down    # Stop

NOTE: Docker automatically stops and restarts containers on system reboot.

more information about the available docker-compose commands can be found in the docker-compose documentation.

Accessing the node

The node is now listening for RPC connections on port 8332 of the host machine. You can interact with it using the bitcoin-cli command, software wallets, mempool explorers, or any other Core/Knots RPC compatible client.