Bitcoin wallets and nodes

All bitcoin wallets must connect to a node to fetch your balances and transaction history. This will LEAK sensitive data to other people.

By default, most bitcoin wallets connect to a third party node.

The problem is that you must leak your public keys and addresses to that node, so that they can tell you your balance and transaction history.

This is especially bad because you provide them with ALL your addresses.

You effectively leak your entire bitcoin stack, transaction history, and FUTURE transactions too!

The solution is to run your own bitcoin node, and connect your wallet to that node.

No longer will you leak information to any third party!

There are a variety of different ways to run a bitcoin node.

You can run a node for free on your own personal computer. That is how I ran my first bitcoin node:

Eventually, I upgraded to Start9 and now connect all my wallets to that.

@start9labs makes running a bitcoin node super straight forward.

Code “SOUTH” gets you 5% off: https://store.start9.com/discount/SOUTH

It is super simple to connect your Start9 bitcoin node to a wallet like Sparrow, here is a guide:

How to connect Sparrow Wallet to Start9 Bitcoin Node

Connecting your bitcoin wallet to a bitcoin node is great for 2 reasons: 1. You do not leak any private information to any third parties. Your are checking your balances against your own node rather than a third party. 2. You are not trusting anyone else to feed you accurate

Southern BitcoinerCole

On top of the privacy gains that come with running a bitcoin node, you also reduce your trust on 3rd parties.

YOUR node tells you the truth. Don’t trust, verify.

And of course, you support the network and make bitcoin stronger.

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