Install-Bitcoind.md

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Install Bitcoind and other supported coin daemons

The bitcoin daemon on the offline computer is used solely to sign transactions and runs without a blockchain. Thus even a low-powered computer such as a Raspberry Pi or an old netbook can serve nicely as your offline machine.

The bitcoin daemon on the online computer requires a complete and up-to-date blockchain for tracking addresses. Since its work is more CPU and disk intensive, a more powerful computer is required here. You’ll also need plenty of free disk space for the growing blockchain (~265GB at the time of writing).

Two blockchain operations are especially resource-intensive: synchronizing the blockchain and importing existing addresses with balances. If you synchronize often (once a week, for example) and take care to import your addresses before spending into them, then it’s possible to get by with a more low-powered computer as your online machine.

Download:

Bitcoin Core:

Go to the Bitcoin Core download page (here or here). Choose the 32-bit or 64-bit versions appropriate for your online and offline computers. Windows users should choose the executable installer.

Bitcoin Cash Node (optional):

If you wish to transact BCH (Bitcoin Cash Node), then download the appropriate Bitcoin Cash Node binary for your system. Windows users should choose the executable installer.

Litecoin (optional):

Go to the Litecoin Core download page. Choose the 32-bit or 64-bit versions appropriate for your online and offline computers. Windows users should choose the executable installer.

Install (both online and offline computers):

Bitcoin Core:

Windows: Run the Windows installer with the default settings. At the end of the installation process, uncheck the Run box to prevent the client from starting.

Linux, macOS: Unpack the archive and copy the bitcoind and bitcoin-cli binaries to /usr/local/bin.

Bitcoin Cash Node (optional):

Windows: Run the Windows installer with the default settings. At the end of the installation process, uncheck the Run box to prevent the client from starting.

Navigate to C:\Program Files\Bitcoin-Cash-Node\daemon and rename the file bitcoind to bitcoind-bchn and bitcoin-cli to bitcoin-cli-bchn.

Linux, macOS: Unpack the archive, rename bitcoind to bitcoind-bchn, and bitcoin-cli to bitcoin-cli-bchn, and copy the renamed files to /usr/local/bin.

Litecoin (optional):

Windows: Run the Windows installer with the default settings. At the end of the installation process, uncheck the Run box to prevent the client from starting.

Linux, macOS: Unpack the archive and copy the litecoind and litecoin-cli binaries to /usr/local/bin.

Run (both online and offline computers):

Windows:

In the Windows command-line environment processes don’t fork to run in the background, so to run multiple daemons simultaneously you must start each one in a separate terminal window. Start your daemons like this:

# Bitcoin Core:
$ bitcoind

# Bitcoin Cash Node:
$ mkdir $APPDATA/Bitcoin-Cash-Node
$ bitcoind-bchn --listen=0 --rpcport=8432 --datadir=$APPDATA/Bitcoin-Cash-Node --usecashaddr=0

# Litecoin
$ litecoind

Note that the --listen=0 argument is required only when running Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Cash Node simultaneously.

Linux, macOS:

Linux and macOS users start their daemons like this:

# Bitcoin Core:
$ bitcoind --daemon

# Bitcoin Cash Node:
$ mkdir ~/.bitcoin-bchn
$ BCH_DATADIR="$HOME/.bitcoin-bchn"                                 # Linux
$ BCH_DATADIR="$HOME/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin-Cash-Node" # macOS
$ bitcoind-bchn --daemon --listen=0 --rpcport=8432 --usecashaddr=0 --datadir="$BCH_DATADIR"

# Litecoin:
$ litecoind --daemon

Communicate with your daemons like this:

# Bitcoin Core:
$ bitcoin-cli help

# Bitcoin Cash Node:
$ BCH_DATADIR="$HOME/.bitcoin-bchn"                                 # Linux
$ BCH_DATADIR="$HOME/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin-Cash-Node" # macOS
$ bitcoin-cli-bchn --rpcport=8432 --datadir="$BCH_DATADIR" help

# Litecoin:
$ litecoin-cli help

If you’re connected to the Internet, the daemon(s) will begin downloading and verifying the blockchain. This can take from several hours to several days depending on the speed of your computer, the size of the blockchain(s) in question and your Internet connection. You can speed up your initial block download enormously by adding the -assumevalid option, followed by a recent block hash, to the command line. Recent block hashes can be found on any blockchain explorer site.

For the offline daemons you may add the options -maxconnections=0 -listen=0 to the command line. Note that offline daemons start very quickly, since they have a blockchain consisting of one block, and use practically no CPU power once running.