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See video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/B-5O_GBcbV0

NOTE: This tutorial is geared towards low-end users who are just looking to run a node to help support the Decred network. For that reason, it does not dive into staking, setting up a wallet, or anything else beyond getting the node running with TOR. This guide will be updated as needed per new releases and tweaks

Raspberry Pi Full Node With Tor Guide

Introduction

In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through how to setup and run a Decred Full Node on the Raspberry Pi with Tor enabled.

A full node is a program that fully validates transactions and blocks, without having to rely on a third party.

Running a full node is one of the strongest actions of support you can do for a peer-to-peer distributed protocol. Every single Decred node that runs on the network adds strength and resilience to the consensus mechanism.

This video is geared towards low-level users new to the Raspberry Pi and Linux. The easiest way to follow along is to run this video alongside the script I've released on github where you can copy and paste in all of the needed commands. You'll see me doing this in the video.

I'd like to thank Checkmate for the original Raspberry Pi Guide, and Kozel for the guide on setting up TOR.

So lets start:

You’ll need:

  • Raspberry pi 3b+ or higher
  • Power Adapter (Power Cord)
  • 32 Gigabyte (or more) SD card and SD card reader, I would reccommend an SSD instead of an SD card if you’d like to get the best performance and shelf life out of your node, but an SD card is fine to start with.
  • An HDMI cable if you’d like to hook your Pi directly up to a monitor or TV.

If you don’t already have a Raspberry Pi, I’d recommend buying a kit or bundle which will come with everything you'll need. These usually run between $60 to $100 online, depending on what model you go for.

Walkthrough Begins Here

Step 1. Download Raspberry Pi Imager

  • Plug your SD card or SSD into your computer. We will be installing the Raspberry Pi OS. Download a program called the Raspberry Pi Imager and install it. Choose your operating system (default is fine), choose your SD card (be careful not to pick anything else) and click write.

  • Once finished right click on the drive and click eject.

You’ll need to decide if you want to set your pi up “headless” meaning you access your pi remotely without having to plug in a mouse, keyboard, and monitor, or you can choose to plug everything in and connect your pi to a tv or monitor with an HDMI cable. I would reccommend taking the time to learn how to SSH in and configure VNC in order to more easily check up on your node.

Step 2. Headless Setup

  • For the headless setup, plug your SD card or SSD back in. you’ll need to create a blank file in your boot drive titled ssh

  • If you plan on sshing into your pi wirelessly, there’s another step where you need to create a file titled wpa_supplicant.conf and input the following in the document:

country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant  GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
  scan_ssid=1
  ssid="your_wifi_ssid"
  psk="your_wifi_password"
  key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

Of course you need to input your own country, ssid (Network name), and your own network password.

  • Save the file once you are done.

  • Right click the drive and click eject.

  • Plug your SD card into your Pi, plug in the power, plug in your ethernet cable (if needed), and boot up your pi.

If you are doing this process directly connecting your pi to a monitor, you should see the pi boot up and you’ll be presented with the homescreen.

Step 3. Putty and VNC

If you are doing a headless setup you will need to download a program called PUTTY. This program will allow us to access our pi, and control it via command line after it has booted.

  • In PUTTY, enter raspberrypi.local and click enter. Click connect past the precaution. You’ll be prompted to enter a Username and Password. The default username is pi and the password is raspberry (all lowercase).

Congrats, you have just SSHed into your pi.

If you tried to connect wirelessly and it couldn't find a host, you may need to plug in your pi directly to a monitor and manually enter your network passphrase when prompted. You can also just go directly through ethernet, which is the easier option.

Now we need to enable VNC.

  • In the command line Run

sudo raspi-config

  • Select Interfacing Options

  • Select VNC

  • Press yes, then okay, then finished.

Next we'll set the resolution for VNC. (This step isn't needed, it's just to change the resolution)

  • Run:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

  • Add the following text to the document:
framebuffer_width=1900
framebuffer_height=1024

Now download, install and launch VNC Viewer

  • Select New connection from the File menu

  • Enter raspberrypi.local in the "VNC Server" field

  • Click Ok.

  • Double-click on the connection icon to connect.

  • Click Ok if you are shown a security warning.

  • Enter the Pi's username and password when prompted. The defaults are username: pi and password: raspberry Click Ok.

Step 4. Initial Configuration

Your Raspberry Pi desktop will then appear in a window on your main computer's desktop. You'll be able to control everything from there.

  • Click past the SSH warning (if it shows up).

  • Set your country as needed.

  • Change your Pi account’s password when prompted

  • You can configure your wi-fi at this point, if needed.

  • Update your Pi.

  • Reboot your Pi when prompted.

If you’re doing this over VNC you’ll need to reconnect once the pi has re-booted.

Now we need to download the DCR installer.

Step 5. Download and run dcrinstall

  • Open the Web Browser (Top left).

  • Navigate to the decred.org website.

Scroll down and look for the green "Stable V1.8.0" button.

Newer releases will be a different version.

Clicking this will bring us to Decred's github releases page.

  • Download dcrinstall-linux-arm-v1.8.0

Again, there may be a newer version out. Make sure to download the latest version.

  • We'll need to set the file as an exectuable. Open the Pi Terminal.

  • Run cd ~/Downloads/

  • Run sudo chmod u+x dcrinstall-linux-arm-v1.8.0

  • Navigate to your downloads folder. Double click the installer, execute the installer in Terminal

It will take a few minutes to download and setup all the files. A folder called ./decred has now been placed in your home directory.

It may ask you to input a password for a new wallet. Enter a password. Remember, we're just using this as a node and not as a wallet.

  • Type n for public data

  • Hit n for Seed

  • We're not using this as a wallet so don't write down the seed.

  • Hit okay for the seed.

Wait for it to finish.

Now we can start the node:

  • Open the terminal.

  • Run:

cd ./decred/decred-linux-arm-v1.8.0
./dcrd

Make sure to change the version number if the current version is no longer v1.8.0 (e.g v1.9.0)

The Decred daemon will boot up and start connecting to peers

If you see that your node has successfully booted, hit control+c so we can finish by enabling TOR.

If you do not wish to run TOR, make sure to forward the 9108 Port. If you choose to use TOR, you won't need to do any port forwarding.

Installing and Configuring TOR

TOR is free and open-source software for enabling anonymous communication.

If you'd like a more in-depth explanation of what all of the commands do I'd reccommend checking out Kozel's Guide: guide on setting up TOR

Lets Start.

  • Open the Raspberry pi terminal:

  • Run sudo apt install tor

  • Press y to continue

  • Run sudo nano /etc/tor/torrc

  • Add the following text at the top:

SocksPort 9050
SocksPort raspberrypi.local:9050
RunAsDaemon 1
DataDirectory /var/lib/tor
HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/dcrd
HiddenServiceVersion 2
HiddenServicePort 9108 127.0.0.1:9108

Press Control and X at the same time when you are finished. Save to the same file location. Hit enter to continue.

(Exit view with ctrl+C)

  • Run sudo cat /var/lib/tor/dcrd/hostname

  • Save your .onion we will need it for the next step.

  • Run nano .dcrd/dcrd.conf

Edit the top of the file with:

proxy=127.0.0.1:9050
listen=127.0.0.1
externalip=Your-Onion-From-Above.onion
torisolation=1

Press Control+X to exit.

Save file

Run your Decred node with

cd
cd ./decred/decred-linux-arm-v1.8.0
./dcrd

The Node will need lots of time to download and sync. Currently the Decred Blockchain is 7.3 Gigabytes in size.

When you start seeing logs saying (inbound) it means your node is accepting peer connections and now you’re officially part of the Decred network, helping it grow. Even if everything is configured properly, you won't see inbound conns for several days on average. The network is intentionally designed to favor nodes that have a track record over new nodes to help prevent things like a bad actor firing up a bunch of malicious nodes.

If your Pi ever loses power, make sure to reboot it and re-run dcrd. It's also a good idea to use VNC to check up on your Pi every so often.

Make sure you follow the Decred Project so you don't miss any new releases.