{"id":75422,"date":"2026-10-23T16:17:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T13:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwallet.com.ua\/?p=75422"},"modified":"2026-10-23T16:17:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T13:17:50","slug":"bitcoin-node-start9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lwallet.com.ua\/en\/bitcoin-node-start9\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Bitcoin node, and why run your own? Start9 explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n\r\n

Running your own Bitcoin node lets you verify payments and retrieve wallet data without querying a third-party server.<\/strong> A hardware wallet stores private keys and signs transactions, but it does not verify the blockchain itself. To display your balance, transaction history and suggested fees, the wallet app on your computer or phone connects to a server. That server is usually run by the wallet manufacturer or a public Electrum server operator. An Electrum server finds blockchain transactions associated with wallet addresses.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Using the Start9 Server One as an example, we explain how a node works, what wallet servers can learn about you and how to connect a hardware wallet to your own server. We also look at node software, since its rules determine which blocks your node accepts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

How a Bitcoin node processes a payment<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n
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A Bitcoin node is a computer running software, usually Bitcoin Core, that downloads blocks starting with the first block from 2009 and checks them against the consensus rules. It verifies signatures, checks that coins have not been spent twice and ensures that new coin issuance and miner rewards follow Bitcoin’s rules. A node rejects any block that breaks even one rule<\/strong>, regardless of which mining pool found it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The wallet app sends the node a transaction signed by your hardware wallet. If the transaction is valid and meets the node’s configured policy, the node adds it to its mempool, a pool of unconfirmed transactions, and relays it to other nodes. Once a miner includes the transaction in a block, every node that receives that block verifies it independently.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Node operators receive no reward for this verification. Unlike mining, it does not involve searching through hashes on specialized hardware, so a small, power-efficient PC is usually sufficient for a home node.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Archival and pruned nodes<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n
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An archival node stores the entire blockchain. According to Blockchain.com<\/a>, this amounted to roughly 780 GB, excluding additional indexes<\/strong>, on October 21, 2026, having grown by about 83 GB over the previous 12 months. A pruned node also verifies the history, but deletes older blocks after checking them to keep stored block data within a set limit. Both are full nodes<\/strong>: they enforce the consensus rules while retaining different amounts of historical data.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The setup with electrs or Fulcrum described below requires an unpruned node<\/strong>. These services find transactions associated with addresses by processing the block history, so automatic deletion of old blocks must be disabled for this setup.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Which servers does your wallet contact?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n
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To calculate your balance, the app needs to find transactions associated with your wallet addresses. Depending on how it connects, it sends the server either data used to look up individual addresses or an extended public key, known as an xpub, from which the account’s addresses can be derived. Private keys are not needed for these lookups and remain on the hardware device.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Ledger Wallet, formerly Ledger Live, uses Ledger’s infrastructure by default, while Trezor Suite uses Trezor’s servers. Sparrow and Electrum let you choose a public Electrum server or specify your own. If you use a public server, its operator receives your wallet queries regardless of who made your hardware wallet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Those queries can allow the operator to link addresses and track their incoming payments, spending and balances. A direct connection also reveals your IP address. Combined with other information, including records held by an exchange that verified a customer’s identity through KYC, this may help identify the wallet owner. An IP address or an exchange withdrawal alone does not reveal your identity documents to the server operator.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The 2020 breach of Ledger’s online store customer database illustrates the consequences of exposing personal information. Attackers obtained the names, phone numbers and postal addresses of around 272,000 customers, who subsequently faced phishing attempts and threats. That incident involved customer records<\/a>, which is a separate issue from what a server sees when a wallet queries the blockchain.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If revealing the size of your savings could put you or your family at risk, consider who can see your wallet queries. Combining financial information with personal details makes targeted phishing, blackmail and physical coercion of cryptocurrency owners<\/a> easier.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

[vc_message color=”info” message_box_style=”classic” message_box_color=”alert-info” style=”rounded”]Connecting your wallet through Tor or a VPN hides your home IP address from the server, but the server still receives the contents of your queries.<\/strong> Its operator can still link the queried addresses and see their history and balances.[\/vc_message]<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Why run your own Bitcoin node?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n
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\"A<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n

Keeping blockchain queries private<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When your wallet app connects only to your node, balance and transaction history queries go to your server. The wallet manufacturer and public Electrum server operators do not receive those queries. Your node exchanges blocks and transactions with other network participants without sending them a list of your wallet addresses.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

You can configure your node to broadcast transactions through Tor to reduce the risk of linking them to your home IP address. However, your own node keeps queries private; the transactions themselves remain public<\/strong>. Connections visible on the blockchain do not disappear when you change how you connect.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Verifying payments independently<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A third-party server can make mistakes, be compromised or provide false data. With your own node, you can independently verify that a transaction is included in a block that follows Bitcoin’s rules<\/strong>. This is especially useful for large payments, such as an over-the-counter (OTC) trade directly with a counterparty or a property sale settled in BTC. Your node shows the result of its own chain verification and the payment’s confirmation count, so you do not have to rely solely on a block explorer screenshot or another operator’s server.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Choosing consensus rules: the BIP-110 example<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n
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The rules in your node software determine which blocks it accepts. The consequences of this choice became apparent during the BIP-110 split in 2026, when some nodes stopped accepting blocks from the main chain.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Bitcoin Core 30.0<\/a>, released in October 2025, changed the default relay policy for transactions containing OP_RETURN outputs, which can carry data. Some operators who opposed the relaxed limits chose Bitcoin Knots for its stricter mempool filters. These filters determine which unconfirmed transactions a node accepts and relays, but do not by themselves change the rules for validating blocks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In May 2026, Knots v29.3.knots20260508 introduced support for BIP-110, also known as RDTS, or Reduced Data Temporary Softfork. The proposal introduced temporary restrictions on arbitrary data at the consensus level. A soft fork narrows the set of valid blocks: a node enforcing the new rules may reject a block that a node without those restrictions accepts. This is what distinguishes a consensus change from mempool filtering.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

On August 8, 2026, at block height 961,632, RDTS entered a mandatory signaling period regardless of the level of miner support. Nodes enforcing RDTS rejected a block that lacked the required signal and followed a separate chain with a small share of the hashrate, or mining computing power. The main chain continued operating, but those nodes no longer showed confirmations for payments on it. Start9 documented the effects of the split<\/a> on wallets, Lightning and other services that depend on a node.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

According to the BIP-110 developers<\/a>, the fork switched to the BLAKE2b mining algorithm on August 30 and has operated as a separate network since then. A payment on that fork must be checked separately from a BTC payment on Bitcoin’s main chain.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Before updating your node, read the release notes and check whether the update changes the consensus rules. If you use a third-party server, its operator chooses the software implementation and version.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What a node does not do<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A Bitcoin node verifies the blockchain, but running one does not change how transactions get into blocks or remove the need to protect your private keys.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n