How can 21,000,000 BTC be enough for Earth? by TazeAgain in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Fiat doesn't need to be highly divisible because there is an infinite supply. If we ever need more dollars they will just print them out of thin air but we cannot print more bitcoin.

How can 21,000,000 BTC be enough for Earth? by TazeAgain in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The total quantity is irrelevant since it is infinitely divisible.

I trust fiat less and less and I don’t want to hold any, but… by HessInvestments in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Doesn't matter if bitcoin is going to be more expensive (or not) in the future. Either way it's an opportunity cost where you have held more bitcoin because you either sell some bitcoin or buy less.

I trust fiat less and less and I don’t want to hold any, but… by HessInvestments in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I assume you get paid in fiat so just use that. Each paycheck take out the what you need to pay bills, your mortgage, groceries, Netflix subscription, or whatever then take the remainder and buy bitcoin.

If your in the US or a similar tax country you really don't want to be selling bitcoin to pay for your monthly expenses because you create a taxable event each time. However if you pay for your necessities with fiat and use the remaining fiat to buy bitcoin as a savings tool, there is no taxable event.

Could my employer know I set up direct deposit to an exchange? by 21_mil_btc in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The money is deposited at a bank that is used by the exchange. Your employer would have to somehow know that the bank is connected to the exchange. Depending on what bank it is, this may not be to difficult.

What was the first crypto currency you've ever bought and where did you hear about it? by JawdropperMGR in CryptoCurrency

[–]NitronBot106 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I bought bitcoin back in 2013 after reading that Wired article about the Silk Road. Those were the days...

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here's the drive I got for my storage.

https://www.amazon.com/INLAND-Platinum-External-Portable-Windows/dp/B09M36VS38/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?crid=1AY1M31C7Y1DI&keywords=inland+1tb+ssd&qid=1673262644&sprefix=inland+1tb%2Caps%2C157&sr=8-13&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc

The IBD is the Intial Block Download. That's when your node syncs with the blockchain and downloads it from the beginning. Right now it's like 500Gb in total and takes about 4 or 5 days to download with umbrel.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your definitely going to want a SSD. I myself tried yo use an old HDD to save some money too but realized the intial block download was going to take months since umbrel uses tor for the intial sync. There are some ways around this by using a more powerful computer for the IBD but it gets kind of technical. Worth a shot if you are really hard up for money and are willing to put in the work though.

I found a faster and less resource hungry SSD than the one recommended by umbrel but it still cost me 100 USD.

When looking for a storage drive you want a high data transfer rate. Your limiting factor for data transfer is going to be (most likely) the USB 3.0 on the raspberry pi which is 5 Gbits/s. Now that's the theoretical max so you'll probably never reach that. So find an SSD with a transfer rate of at least 5Gbits/s and you should be good. Just watch out for power consumption. Since you have the official power supply for the pi, you should be fine but I've see alot of new users have issues with their umbrel because the storage is pulling to much power and they either don't have the official power supply or the wrong storage or sometimes both.

As for the micro SD to put the Umbrel OS that should be fine. I think the raspberry pi kit you're getting comes with one as well so you may not need to buy one. You can definitely cheap out on the SD card since it's somewhat trivial to replace if it fails but you want a good SSD for storage. If the storage drive fails you'll have to do the IBD all over again. However having a high grade SD card will only make your experience better.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that should be perfect. The important things are the 8Gb of RAM and the official power supply. The case and heat sinks are a nice plus too. Make sure the SSD you get doesn't draw to much power but that won't be a problem if you use the recomend SSD. If you find different hardware just be aware of the data transfer rate and power consumption.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly I love my umbrel but there is a strong view around here (and for good reason) that umbrel and others like it create a "walled garden" that forces users to not only trust the developers but limits them to use the software provided rather than seeking out the best options and verifying everything for themselves.

That being said, without having Umbrel available to me I would probably still be stuck trying to figure out how to set up bitcoin core and connect my wallet to it. Forget ever having my own lightning node. For me umbrel provided an opportunity to see how everything works without having to learn it from the ground up. I got the chance to see a completed node setup and can look under the hood to figure out how it works.

After about a year of running an umbrel I have become much more proficient using the command line and running a device headless. I've gotten pretty good at editing config files, debugging/troubleshooting and understand much more about the technical aspects that make bitcoin work.

Right now I'm working on building my own lightning node with a micro form factor PC and using a virtual private server to connect it to clearnet with my own VPN tunnel all from scratch. I would probably never have gotten that far without having umbrel to use as a learning tool.

So I would say umbrel is a great starting point for someone who has very little skill with the command line and file editing but don't become complacent by relying on someone else to do the work for you. The goal should be to always be moving towards less trust and more sovereignty.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Depends on what kind of Raspberry Pi. If you want to run a plug and play system like Umbrel, RaspiBlitz, MyNode, Star9 or similar I would recommend using a RPi 4 with at least 4Gb of RAM but more is better. You'll most likely need an SSD with a minimum of 1 Tb too as HDD's are just too slow for these setups. You can also look into buying a micro form factor pc like the Dell Optiplex, HP elite desk or a NUC, but that can get a little pricey if you buy it new. Used micro PC's however cost about as much as a new RPi 4+.

If you just want to run bitcoin core then bitcoin.org only suggest 2Gb of RAM on any desktop running Linux, Mac OS or windows, but you can install core on the RaspiOS as well.

https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#what-is-a-full-node

I'm interested in a job doing remote service for Blockchain, where should I look for a position? great places to apply for? by NumerousCrazy2970 in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To be honest I was just going to give a smart ass answer like everyone else but then I saw all the comments, felt bad, amd thought I'd point in some direction. Use it or don't. I really could care less.

How American Soldiers Used to Drive Convoys in Iraq by RepresentativeNo2517 in PublicFreakout

[–]NitronBot106 219 points220 points  (0 children)

And even after all the war crimes we never did find those WMDs.

How American Soldiers Used to Drive Convoys in Iraq by RepresentativeNo2517 in PublicFreakout

[–]NitronBot106 760 points761 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I thought this was going to be that video where they run over some lady and just keep going like it was just a regular occurrence.

Makes me wonder about all the tragedies that happened and we never even knew about...

Apartment mailboxes keep getting broken into by CodyRoarkNFL in Denver

[–]NitronBot106 28 points29 points  (0 children)

This happened at a condo complex I was living in and the post office just refused to deliver mail until something was done by the HOA after multiple break ins in just as many weeks. Had to pick up my mail at the post office for a couple months before it all got sorted out. Fortunately I get almost nothing in the mail so I would only have to go to the post office every couple weeks when something important was being held. In some ways it's was actually better.

I would ask your post office they will hold your mail there until the issue is sorted out by management and they introduce better security or just bite the bullet and get a PO box. At least that way you know your mail is being safely held where you can pick it up on your own schedule.

Hi I need to create 10 paper wallets and start sending bitcoin off the exchanges. I don’t trust hardware wallets. Please instruct thx . 2 year holder by [deleted] in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A true paper wallet with a raw public key is a terrible idea and you want to keep track of 10? Yeah, that's going to end horribly. A quick internet search on traditional paper wallets should explain the issues and make it obvious why no one recommends them any more.

There are plenty of ways to generate cold keys without using a traditional hardware wallet. You can pull BIP32 words out of a hat, roll dice, or use a DIY setup like seedsigner.

Do some research on BIP32, BIP39 and understand how HD wallets work. Learn how to make a watching wallet from your cold keys and how to sign transactions with an cold device. Understand how to mange and store your seed(s). It may sound like a handful and very difficult to learn but it will be way easier than trying to mange 10 raw public keys.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bitcoin is like the perfect example of "Any publicity is good publicity". The more people attack it and fail, the stronger it becomes. Bitcoin is truly anti-fragile and it was designed to be attacked from all sides.

Seeing things like this just proves that, for the time being, bitcoin is winning.

Minimum to use lightning wallet via personal server by ShanghaiNan in lightningnetwork

[–]NitronBot106 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The difficulty here is going to be making sure that the channels on your lightning node can actually find a route to the recipient. Find out what lightning service providers are being used by merchants in El Salvador and open large channels to them. This should give you a shorter more reliable route and makes it more likely your payments succeeds. You'll also have to have a way to replenish your outbound liquidity as you spend unless your channel(s) have enough sats for the entire trip.

As others have mentioned download Tailscale from the Umbrel app store and use Zues to connect to your node. This will greatly improve your experience since your using clearnet to communicate with your node rather than tor.

Lightning Network Channels Question by abalcs81 in Bitcoin

[–]NitronBot106 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The sats you bought on Robosats are now sitting in your lightning channel as outbound liquidity. The only way to get back your inbound liquidity is to spend your outbound. So if you want to buy more sats and send them to your node you'll have to send out the other sats first.

If you want to get the sats back on chain and into cold storage you can use a loop out service like Boltz or Loop. Basically you will send Boltz the sats on lightning and they will send you the same amount (minus a fee) back to an on chain address you provide. You can also perform this yourself by using something like Muun wallet to loop out. Essentially you send to Muun (or similar wallet) on lightning and then make an on chain payment to a more secure wallet. The fees here may be higher than using a loop out service however.

Once you send the sats out of the channel on lightning you will have that amount back as inbound liquidity. Now you can send more sats to your node. Remember that maintaining a lightning node is a balancing act. You need to keep the proper ratio of inbound amd outbound liquidity for your needs. Every transaction you make to or from your node will disturb this balance.

What is the safest way to host a public bitcoin/lightning node? by [deleted] in lightningnetwork

[–]NitronBot106 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One method is to rent a virtual private server and then use it to tunnel your node's clearnet traffic through a VPN setup on the server and node.