sovbox

sovbox is a collection of maximalist Ansible scripts to easily set up a Bitcoin full node on a headless server, that is able to serve many different wallets without any of the configuration based on a specific wallet (such as xpubs) and provide as much financial privacy and sovereignty as possible.

Note sovbox is still early stage. Use this at your own risk. Don't trust, verify.

Wanna help?

Why?

It is born out of the personal need to set up a box for more sovereignty over store of value. Many highly knowledgeable people talk about the importance of running a full node, but actually setting up a full node and connecting it to a Bitcoin wallet is still far from straightforward if you don't want to purchase and run a Nodl or Casa Node.

It's a bit like Node Launcher without the GUI/desktop stuff.

ansible is easy to read and understand if you have basic Unix knowledge. We aim to document our code well.

How to run this?

1. make sure you have a box you can ssh into, this can be an old laptop, Raspberry Pi with external drive or a server you're renting, you will need at least 200GB of storage space

2. install ansible on your laptop or desktop

3. copy hosts.example to /etc/ansible/hosts and add your hostname

4. run ansible-playbook -v sovbox.yml from sovbox/

5. bonus: Run more than one node, some public, some private 😉

How we create sovbox

• build from source as much as possible, to reduce the need to trust third parties
• pinpoint specific versions of software, we will not just clone master
• step by step, put different components in Ansible rules

Status

• role: Bitcoin full node
• role: ElectrumX
• mostly works on Ubuntu 18 LTS
• randomly generate RPC user/pass
• testing on different machines
• Vagrant, to set up a virtual machine
• travis-ci.org
• checksums? verify code?
• more tor https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/tor.md
• role: samurai dojo
• role: btcpayserver
• role: lightning watchtower?
• blockstream satellite support? fetch lightning messages and serve them through website?
• noob-friendly docs

FAQ

What do I need to run this?

A machine running Linux and has enough disk space, that you can ssh into.

How is this different from Nodl?

Nodl is selling hardware, that works out of the box. This is great, but it's also great if you can use an old laptop or a Raspberry Pi with an external drive.

How is this different from Node Launcher?

Node Launcher is a GUI for a desktop or laptop. It needs a screen.

Sovbox works on any Linux machine with enough disk space, no need for a screen. No need to run this in your own house even, as you can rent a dedicated or cloud server.

Who may want to use it?

Someone who wants a full node but doesn't want to keep it running at home, e.g. nomads or students living in a dorm.

Someone who wants to use an old machine for this, instead of buying something new and fancy like Nodl or a Casa Node.

Someone who wants to know more precisely what software is running.

Will there be a GUI?

Maybe later.

Will you support my shitcoin so and so?

No, but you're free to fork.

Useful resources

• https://bitcoin-only.com
• https://stephanlivera.com/
• https://bitzuma.com/posts/compile-bitcoin-core-from-source-on-ubuntu/

Related projects

• https://github.com/k3tan172/ubuntu-node-box An extensive guide to building your financial sovereignty on Ubuntu 18.04
• https://github.com/lightning-power-users/node-launcher