How to Run Bitcoin Core, Mempool, Electrum for $5/month

When you run your own node, you can verify transaction data, and get transaction data from a source you can trust completely.

You can run your own Bitcoin Node if you want to do anything that uses Bitcoin API / wallet access. If you need Bitcoin API access, it's probably cheaper to run your own node than to go to a service provider. You can easily run your own Bitcoin Node by getting a hosted "Storage VPS" since Bitcoin Core requires a lot of storage.

Minimum Requirements to run Bitcoin Core

https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-core/features/requirements

Options for Cheap "Storage VPS" Service Providers:

Interserver

• Note: tested this and could not get an OS to install
• https://www.interserver.net/vps/storage.html
• $6/month for 1TB / 1 CPU / 4GB RAM

Contabo

• Note: seems like the best bang for your buck even though it's twice some of the others
• https://contabo.com/en/storage-vps
• $10.99/month for 700GB / 4 CPU / 10GB RAM

Time4VPS

• Note: only supports older OS (example Debian 9, Ubuntu 16.04) - so you will need to run older versions of bitcoind
• https://time4vps.com
• €4.49/month for 1TB / 1 CPU / 2GB RAM

Here is what my server usage looks like while synchronizing with the bitcoin chain:

Steps to Install Bitcoin Core (bitcoind)

1. Purchase a server running Debian or Ubuntu using the links above
2. SSH to the server
3. Update apt apt update && apt upgrade -y
4. Download bitcoind wget https://bitcoin.org/bin/bitcoin-core-22.0/bitcoin-22.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
5. (if you are running debian9, then use an older version of bitcoind: wget bitcoin-0.19.0.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz)
6. Unpack tar -zxvf bitcoin-22.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
7. Install sudo install -m 0755 -o root -g root -t /usr/local/bin bitcoin-22.0/bin/*
8. Run once to see if it works by just running bitcoind
9. Check log file tail -f ~/.bitcoin/debug.log
10. Stop bitcoind (press control-C)
11. Set up your bitcoin.conf file nano ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf file - recommend using the info below with own rpc user/pass here:

rpcuser=bitcoin 
rpcpassword=bitcoinpass 
rpcallowip=127.0.0.1
daemon=1 
minrelaytxfee=2500
maxconnections=20
maxuploadtarget=250
txindex=1
server=1

12. Check the sync of your bitcoin node - I have written a little script here https://gist.github.com/bensig/4793be2327b1d535a70046a759a5e696

Installing electrum and mempool

Follow the install steps in their Github here:

• Electrs v0.99 - https://github.com/romanz/electrs/blob/v0.8.0/doc/usage.md
• Mempool v2.4.1 - https://github.com/mempool/mempool/tree/v2.4.1/backend#setup