How To Setup Bitcoin Full Node ON GCP(Google Cloud Platform)

Introduction

A Bitcoin full node is a setup that fully validates transactions and blocks on the blockchain. Almost all full nodes also help the network by accepting transactions and blocks from other full nodes, validating those transactions and blocks, and then relaying them to further full nodes.

Most full nodes also serve lightweight clients by allowing them to transmit their transactions to the network and by notifying them when a transaction affects their wallet. If not enough nodes perform this function, clients won’t be able to connect through the peer-to-peer network — they’ll have to use centralized services instead.

In this article, we will introduce four topics

• Bitcoin full node — A ‘full node’ is a computer in Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer network which hosts and synchronises a copy of the entire Bitcoin blockchain. Nodes are essential for keeping a cryptocurrency network running.

• GCP(Google Cloud Platform) — Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a suite of cloud computing services offered by Google.

• Step by Step guide — Guide on how to set up Bitcoin Full Node on Google Cloud Platform(GCP).

• Why do we need Bitcoin full node — Running a Bitcoin node allows a user to interact with the Bitcoin network more privately and securely. A Bitcoin node enables a user to prove their ownership of Bitcoin without relying on any third party. Setting up a Bitcoin node is relatively simple, and it strengthens the robustness of the network.

Note

Bitcoin Full Node upgraded to the latest Bitcoin Core V0.24 along with bitcoin-qt, bitcoin-cli and bitcoin-wallet on Ubuntu 22.04. The VM also provide you with the latest Ordinal installed which is a numbering scheme for satoshis that allows tracking and transferring individual sats. For more details please visit- Ordinals Documentation.

If you want to save time in setting up a Bitcoin Full Node ON GCP with a fully synced environment, you can opt for Techlatest’s Bitcoin Full Node, available on the GCP marketplace. By launching and connecting to Techlatest’s Bitcoin Full Node on GCP users can set up their synced environment in a few minutes, rather than going through a lengthy installation and syncing process which takes days to sync several GBs of ledger data and costs hundreds of dollars in bandwidth cost.

Why you should run a Bitcoin full node: A full node is a program that fully validates transactions and blocks. Almost all full nodes also help the network by accepting transactions and blocks from other full nodes, validating those transactions and blocks, and then relaying them to further full nodes.

Step by Step Guide to install, and setup Bitcoin Full Node on Google Cloud Platform(GCP)

This step-by-step guide describes how to launch and connect to Techlatest’s Bitcoin Full Node on the Google Cloud Platform(GCP).

• Step 1

Open Bitcoin Full Node Listing on GCP Marketplace.

• Step 2

Click on the Launch Button.

For zone, you must select us-central1-a. The VM can be deployed only in us-central1-a.

Optionally change the number of cores and amount of memory. (This defaults to 2 vCPUs and 7.5 GB ram.).

Optionally change the boot disk type and size. Boot disk size should be greater than or equal to 700 GB. (This defaults to “Standard Persistent Disk” and 700 GB respectively).

Optionally change the network name and subnetwork names. Be sure that whichever network you specify has ports 22 (for ssh) and 3389 (for RDP) exposed.

Click Deploy when you are done. Bitcoin Full Node Suit will begin deploying.

• Step 3

A summary page displays when the compute engine is successfully deployed. Click on the Instance link to go to the instance page.

• Step 4

On the instance page, click on the “SSH” button, and select “Open in a browser window”.

• Step 5

This will open the SSH window in a browser.

• Step 6

Run the below command to set the password for the “ubuntu” user.

sudo passwd ubuntu

• Step 7

Now the password for the Ubuntu user is set, you can connect to the VM’s desktop environment from any local Windows machine using RDP protocol or a Linux machine using Remmina.

• Step 8

To connect using RDP via Windows Machine, first, note the external IP of the VM from the VM details page as highlighted below.

• Step 9

Then From your local Windows machine, go to the “start” menu, in the search box type and select “Remote desktop connection”

• Step 10

In the “Remote Desktop Connection” wizard, copy the external IP and click on the connect button.

• Step 11

This will connect you to the VM’s desktop environment. Provide “ubuntu” as the user and the password set in step 6 to authenticate. Click on the OK button.

• Step 12

Now you are connected to the out-of-box Bitcoin Full Node environment via Windows Machine.

• Step 13

Bitcoin directories:

All Bitcoin ledger data is stored under /home/bitcoin directory

Bitcoin wallet and configuration file (bitcoin.conf) are located under /home/ubuntu/.bitcoin directory

• Step 14

Once VM is provisioned, you can start the Bitcoin node either via the command line or using the Bitcoin QT GUI wallet.

Start the Bitcoin sync process using the command line :
Go to the terminal and execute the below command as an Ubuntu user to run Bitcoin daemon in the background -

bitcoind

To verify the command execution or to monitor the daemon, you can tail the Bitcoin debug log -

tail -f /home/bitcoin/debug.log

Start the Bitcoin sync process using GUI:
You can also run the sync process by running the Bitcoin-QT GUI wallet. For this, connect to the VM using RDP as described in steps 8 to 12. Once connected, click on bitcoin-qt to start the sync process. A window may pop up asking to mark the application executable. Click on the “Mark Executable” button to avoid seeing this window in future.

• Step 15

How to stop Bitcoin daemon :

To manually stop bitcoins, run the below command.

"bitcoin-cli stop"

• Step 16

Delete the wallet.dat file by running the below command.

sudo rm /home/ubuntu/.bitcoin/wallets/wallet.dat

• Step 17

To know how to use the Bitcoin Full Node kit, please refer to the video tutorial series available on Youtube.

Conclusion

The article provides a step-by-step guide on how to set up a Bitcoin Full Node on the Google Cloud Platform(GCP), starting with creating a GCP account and subscribing to the Bitcoin Full Node listing on GCP Marketplace.

The guide explains how to launch and connect to Techlatest’s Bitcoin Full Node and how to access the VM’s desktop environment from a local Windows or Linux machine using RDP protocol or Remmina.

The article also demonstrates how to start the Bitcoin sync process using a command line or GUI, how to stop the Bitcoin daemon, and how to delete the wallet.dat file.

By downloading all transactions, a full node will always have the latest and greatest information relating to information on bitcoin’s blockchain. For Bitcoin investors, a full node will serve two purposes — monitor the health and security of the Bitcoin blockchain and validate the accuracy of transactions.

Overall, the guide provides a clear and concise tutorial for anyone interested in setting up a Bitcoin Full Node on GCP, with helpful screenshots and instructions for each step.