With more and more news about Bitcoin, with more and more people hearing about and getting on board daily, perhaps now is the time to run your own Bitcoin node. As Bitcoin gets used more and more, it will need more ASIC miners to mine the blocks as well as more and more nodes to help validate the transactions and blocks. If you do not have the money or time to get a ASIC miner, but want to help the network, you can instead run a Bitcoin node with a decent computer with a reasonable amount of storage space.

The mining hashrate of Bitcoin is rapidly increasing and the next halving of the block reward is coming in the next few months as well, from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. This probably means the price will go up, and when it does, more people will want to buy it and to use it, meaning more and more transactions to validate and blocks to secure.

So why should you run your own Bitcoin Node? Well, you are increasing the security and safety of the Bitcoin network. As you run your own full Bitcoin node, you are helping to validate transactions and therefore increase the strength of the network and make it hard for bad players to put fake transactions on the network, to double spend or to take over the network with a 50 percent attack. Unlike Bitcoin mining with ASICs, you do not get paid to run a Bitcoin node, but you do help the network and ensure Bitcoin is safe and secure.

Steps to running a Bitcoin node

1. Be aware of the costs and risks of running a Bitcoin node. Only use a computer that does not have your personal data or information on it. Ensure it is connected to the internet and on all the time. And note, for some reason, people in the UK are unable to run Bitcoin nodes at the moment and are blocked from downloading the software required.

2. Check to ensure your computer has the required hardware and software to run the node, particularly the storage space needed - approximately 340 GB at a minimum.

3. Download the Bitcoin node from a reputable source, from the Bitcoin webpage itself if possible and ensure you do not download any viruses or fake node software.

4. If you are going to use your Bitcoin node for your own Bitcoin, ensure the keys and node are kept private and secure.

5. Install the Bitcoin node, noting it may take a few days to download the entire blockchain.

6. Once the download is complete, leave your computer on and connected to the internet as much as possible, as close as possible to 24/7 to help run and secure the network. 

7. Tell your friends and family and get them to run their own Bitcoin nodes as well! The more people who run their own nodes, the more decentralized and secure the Bitcoin network will become.

What are your thoughts on Bitcoin and running your own node? Do you own any Bitcoin and buy any regularly? What do you think of GPU and ASIC mining? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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