Why still run a full node?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

This is something I've been asking myself lately. Other than to show support for classic or unlimited why do I actually run a full node anymore? Back when I got into bitcoin as a miner in early 2014 (yea I missed the boat big time) it was recommended to run a node for mining. I set one up and joined a pool so never used it directly for mining just for receiving my payouts and holding them until I could move them into cold storage. Another benefit of a full node was the ability to set the fee as low as you waned or even 0. This was great for moving to cold storage. One of the drawbacks to bitcoin is feeds to move coins between your own wallets and you could just not pay any if you didn't mind waiting a bit. Of course many small mining payouts mean big transactions too so setting a low fee was beneficial as well to spend those coins.

Move on to today. Nodes aren't required for mining and solo mining is damn near impossible so running one for that is useless. Can't do low or 0 fee transactions the network either won't accept them or miners won't mine them. You also have wallets that let you set fees as well. Another benefit of running full nodes gone. Using it as a collection for payouts from mining (if I still minded) would be a waste of bitcoin as well. All those small mining payouts mean large expensive to send transactions. You don't have those issues sending to exchange wallets and spending from there. Yes I know keeping coins in exchange wallets isn't a good idea but the benefits of the free transactions will outweigh the dangers for the average user.

So as bitcoin is right now it actually makes more sense to not run a full node, receive money to your exchange wallet and spend or move to cold storage from there. It only makes sense for businesses and mining operations to actually run nodes. Why is this? Changes because of the block size limit removed the last benefits of the hobbyist running a full node. Small block supporters are worried about big blocks meaning less nodes well small blocks will mean that too. At least big blocks mean more utility for more companies that will have a need to run nodes.

For now I will continue to run my node to support the network but if something should happen to it I will be forced to think long and hard about putting it back up. The only reason I haven't emptied it yet is it will cost way too much in fees to move all those small mining payouts.

[LiteCoinGuy]

there are still some reasons to run a full node.

1) you support the network and your investment in bitcoin. (decentralization=resilience)

2) when you run a full node, you have a complete history of all transactions and dont rely on a third party. so you know what is true and what is not.

so when everybody would shut down and we only rely on Bitpays, Coinbases etc full nodes, that would be pretty bad and would hurt your investment very much.

LCG

[rogerver]

Don't forget that it is fun!

[SerutEhtt]

@FUBAR-BDHR - I agree with you completely, there isn't really any incentive of running a full node other than what litecoinguy mentioned, which is basically security and support for the network.

If there were even little rewards for running full node, lot of people would do it but they must think like me, I make like 4-5 transactions in a week, I don't need to run a full node for that.

[TomZ]

First, I think having a wallet in your full node is a rather bad reason to have a full node.
Better move that wallet onto a use pen or two.

Running a node is similar to running a torrent client. Only a small fraction of the population keeps their torrent client running after their download completes. And thats Ok. The Bitcoin network works quite Ok with a rather low number of full nodes.

I went into a little bit of a vision of how I think a full node will be run in the future in a blog post I wrote some weeks ago
https://zander.github.io/posts/Scaling% ... lhome-node

A node that validates all blocks fully is needed in order to keep everyone honest. It also gives me the peace of mind that if I trust my node, I don't have to trust anyone else. So I foresee that you will get small communities gathering around full nodes. You can let your family use it, or maybe your football club or church will set one up just to support the community. Individuals will then make their phone-wallets have at least one host they trust, which is the one from your community.

This preserves Bitcoins greatest assets, you don't have to trust banks or governments. People trusting their local church or football club is much more normal and common to do.

Such a node would have no need to keep the full history from block zero. It would turn on pruning. With today's price of hardware this does not mean it would stop being able to serve historic blocks, because it could easily hold a month of blocks history. This does, however, mean we need to make the software a bit smarter. See some pruning ideas. https://zander.github.io/scaling/Pruning/

We have got a lot of catching up to do after Core has neglected focusing on actual problems to solve for so long, but doing some smarter pruning is a quick solution and I mention various other items that need to be done to make this much less painful.

Not just today, but also in future there are some basic reasons why you want to run a fully validating node. Here are my top two

• * Trust. You and your friends like bitcoin because you have been paying banks and they betrayed your trust losing you lots of money. So you point your bitcoin wallet on your phone to a decentralized node instead. One ran by someone you trust. Either one you run, or, more likely, one ran by a person in your social circle.
  * Because you can. Running a node is quite cheap. You like it and you feel that its your civic duty. Much like people group in spring to clean up their neighbourhood or help the local charity. Not everything is about money.

What people often forget is that the internet as a whole (and something like Facebook specifically) is very similar. Its value is zero if nobody uses it. But contrary to the internet, Bitcoin would stop running if nobody participated. So what running a node means is that you are, literally, part of the network. That may just be a feel good idea, but this is another feedback loop that Bitcoin is full with.

If not enough people run a full node, the quality slowly goes down for everyone. And if people care, that will cause more nodes to be run.

Notice that our current 6000 nodes is many times what we need to keep a healthy network on a technical level. So, for now, please run one and vote for Classic