Just sent my first transaction using the new setup, time to decommission my first node. I put this together with equipment that I already had and left the DebianOS, I just downloaded the Bitcoin Core program and let it run. This worked great for connecting my own wallet and broadcasting transactions but I was limited by my own technical knowledge of adding more features like a block explorer, lightning, etc. Sadly in 2025 it is no longer recommended to run a bitcoin node on a small device like this because of all the spam/runes/ordinal/shitcoinery on the bitcoin blockchain over the last few years. This is why I run Knots! Say no to spam and make nodes affordable for everyone.

Signed up for X yesterday, already locked out twice.

Look at all the shitcoin #SPAM! My new node's mempool on the right has significantly less spam in the mempool because I'm filtering out non-monetary transactions with Knots.

Another node joins the network. 24 hours later and we are up and running! That was way faster than my previous RasPi. I'll do a comparison between the nodes in terms of cost, features, usability, etc.

We're gonna need a bigger boat.

Relocated my home miner to its new home in the laundry room for the summer months, it was getting a little spicy in the living room!

New node with 16gb RAM and 2TB SSD running Start9OS and BTC Knots! Let's see how long it takes to sync the entire blockchain.

I started my search for sounds money with gold and silver, and still have both. They both used to be money, but I'm learning that they are more of a collectible market today. Liquidity and the buy/sell spread are both issues, a couple years ago there was a high demand, I could sell thousands of dollars of metals over spot price within an hour. Today the demand is much lower and metals aren't even selling at spot price. Not to mention that shipping takes 2-3 business days and $10. Compare that to Bitcoin: little to no spread from buying to selling, 24/7 access to highly liquid markets, instant peer to peer transfers for pennies. Bitcoin is the better monetary asset.

And this is why I play monopoly with my kiddos. Gotta teach them that paper money isn't real, the only real thing is what you can buy with that money.

During the bear market crash of 2022 I leveraged myself with a 4% interest loan to buy bitcoin. Since then the price of bitcoin has gone up almost 500% and I've been making the minimum payments to service the debt. As we move into Q4 of the post halving year I want to pay off the loan. Currently running the numbers, will update when complete.