description
Build your own "DIY" Bitcoin & Lightning node, and other stuff on a personal computer. No need to trust anyone else.

MiniBolt

Build your own "do-everything-yourself" Bitcoin & Lightning node, and other stuff on a personal computer, making you sovereign.

No need to trust anyone else. Don't trust, verify!

What is the MiniBolt?

With this guide, you can set up a Bitcoin, Lightning node, and other stuff on a personal computer, doing everything yourself. You will learn about Linux, Bitcoin, Lightning, and much more.

There are many reasons why you should run your own Bitcoin node:

👥 Keep Bitcoin decentralized: use your node to help enforce your Bitcoin consensus rules.

🗽 Take back your sovereignty: let your node validate your Bitcoin transactions. No need to ask someone else to tell you what's happening in the Bitcoin network.

🥷🏽 Improve your privacy: connect your wallets to your node so you no longer need to reveal their financial history to external servers.

⚡️ Be part of Lightning: run your Lightning node for everyday payments and help build a robust and decentralized Lightning network.

MiniBolt overview

This guide explains setting up your own Bitcoin node on a personal computer. However, it works on most hardware platforms because it only uses standard Debian-based Linux commands.

Features

Your Bitcoin node will offer the following functionality:

🟠 Bitcoin: direct and trustless participation in the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network, full validation of blocks and transactions

⚛️ Electrum server: connect your compatible wallets (including hardware wallets) to your node

⛓️ Blockchain Explorer: web-based Explorer to privately look up transactions, blocks, and more

⚡ Lightning: full client with stable long-term channels and web-based and mobile-based management interfaces

🔋 Always on: services are constantly synced and available 24/7

🌐 Reachable from anywhere: connect to all your services through the Tor network and Wireguard VPN

Target audience

• We strive to give foolproof instructions. But the goal is also to do everything ourselves.
• Shortcuts that involve trusting someone else are not allowed. This makes this guide quite technical, but we try to make it as straightforward as possible.
• You'll gain a basic understanding of the how and why.
• If you want to learn about Linux, Bitcoin, and Lightning, this guide is for you.

Structure

We aim to keep the core of this guide well-maintained and up-to-date:

System 🖥️	Prepare the hardware and set up the operating system		operating-system.md	remote-access.md		system	operating-system.gif
₿itcoin 🟠	Sync your own Bitcoin full node, Electrum server, Blockchain Explorer, and connect a desktop wallet to the Electrum server		electrum-server.md	blockchain-explorer.md		bitcoin	core_logo.png
Lightning ⚡	Run your Lightning client with web-based node management, connect a mobile app, and save safely your SCB backup		channel-backup.md	web-app.md		lightning	lightning-network-daemon-logo.png
➕ Bonus guide	The bonus section contains more specific guides that build on top of the main section. More fun, lots of knowledge, but with lesser maintenance guarantees. Everything is optional.		system	bitcoin	nostr	Broken link	bonus-logo.png

How to build

• YouTube list building MiniBolt in live with Albercoin of Laboratorio Virtual Bitcoin (Spanish)

{% embed url="https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7-Q40ihLbmP9vXZGdQgEozQnFISzT8ms" %}

Community

🛠️ GitHub 🛠️		Pull requests Issues / Knowledge base Discussions
👥 RRSS 👥		Reddit sub: r/minibolt Nostr community Telegram Groups: English Spanish Telegram Channels (News): English Spanish Nostr channels: English Spanish

{% hint style="info" %} Feel free to join the many other contributors if you see something that can be improved! {% endhint %}

Resources

🗺️ Network map	networkmap_icon.png	https://bit.ly/minibolt-ramix_netmap
🛣️ Roadmap	roadmap_icon.png	https://github.com/orgs/minibolt-guide/projects/1
📋 Guides list	list.png	https://www.reddit.com/r/minibolt/comments/zmrtdk/minibolt_resources_list_of_the_minibolt_corebonus/

Free Services

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Nostr relay" %}

wss://relay.minibolt.info

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Electrum server" %} Fulcrum - mainnet (🧅onion):

tcp://vr4bgiwqlhuweftttc6bj7lm5ijjyafwsr43nmeiu3k4mcgtl4tpozyd.onion:50001

Fulcrum - testnet4 (🧅onion):

tcp://cp5hjh5qalej2inaei2xrl3vitzcwfawvvhnrl7gtbsb3eke5wq6isad.onion:40001

ssl://cp5hjh5qalej2inaei2xrl3vitzcwfawvvhnrl7gtbsb3eke5wq6isad.onion:40002

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Explorer" %} BTC RPC Explorer - mainnet (🚾clearnet):

https://explorer.minibolt.info

BTC RPC Explorer - mainnet (🧅onion):

http://rzcj4r2p6wterkto5prigsplq6iva5bqhcxr7y3d6w4hoc3uwizpp5qd.onion

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Lightning Watchtower" %} Lightning Watchtower server - mainnet (🧅onion):

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

02ad47b4e41cfce258e2db8d7eb9a194570ca29beba2897970d1ecc7d1c9a2726b@zm32w2qs2lf6xljnvqnmv6o2xlufsf4g6vfjihyydg4yhxph4fnqcvyd.onion:9911

{% endcode %} {% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

Rating

All guides are rated with labels to help you assess their difficulty and whether they are tested against the most recent version of the main guide.

• Difficulty: indicates how difficult the bonus guide is in terms of installation procedure or usage

{% hint style="success" %} Difficulty: Easy {% endhint %}

{% hint style="warning" %} Difficulty: Medium {% endhint %}

{% hint style="danger" %} Difficulty: Hard {% endhint %}

• Cost: indicates if the service used in the guide is free or paid

{% hint style="warning" %} Cost: Paid service {% endhint %}