The biggest benefits of running a node is you don't leak your xpub or depend on anyone else to make transactions
Validating transactions is secondary because realistically you can use dozens of block explorers for that
In practice this means you'll get 80% of the benefit running a pruned node on your existing device
No need to blast big money on dedicated hardware, just install Bitcoin core on your PC and prune it to 2000 blocks
See small blocks don’t matter….
🎯
This and running my own cloud backup. Goog/apple having access to everything I do was unacceptable once I considered it.
May I ask how you're doing your own cloud backup?
Idk man that start9 is a beauty
I will be following your advice. I splurged for an Umbrel Home (based on BTC Sessions’ review of the hardware)—it was a gift to myself for a very productive January.
What’s the other 20%? How do you quantify that, or it’s just a figure or speach?
Just figure of speech, other 20% is validating your own transactions and contributing to the network
If you're technically savvy, you should consider running your own Lightning Node in addition to a BTC node.... this helps the decentralization of the network. We have a guide which is Docker-centric here... https://docs.megalithic.me/category/should-i-run-a-lightning-node
Another angle to also consider, I'm doing this, is to run a Bitcoin node on a cloud virtual machine.
I do this on vultr .com cloud provider.
On a $10 a month VM.
A pruned node.
With this, I don't have to keep my PC at home running at all times.
Plus, I can run some other apps 24/7 on my VM.
Ofc, with cloud I'm KYC-ed, but, so be it.
Pros and cons.
Keep in mind that your IP address becomes visible to the nodes you are connected to when broadcasting a transaction. This means other nodes on the network can see your IP address as the source of the transaction. If your IP address can be linked to your identity, this could compromise your privacy.
Currently syncing with the blockchain. Only 27 weeks to go 👍 😂 😭
