Install Bcoin node on Ubuntu 20.04
Bcoin is a full bitcoin node implementation used to parse the blockchain and verify blocks and transactions. Besides the standard bitcoin node it has some extra features such as an index on address and transactions.
This makes it possible to query the node for transactions or UTXO's of a specific address. The library Bitcoinlib can make use of the Bcoin node so it can run locally and doesn't need external blockchain services. The Blocksmurfer explorer uses a Bcoin node to query for blocks, transactions and address data.
Install and build Bcoin
Make sure you have at least 500GB disk space available for the blockchain database.
Update packages and install required repositories, Node.js and the Node.js package manager npm.
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade
$ sudo apt install build-essential
$ sudo apt install nodejs
$ sudo apt install npm
Add a new user, specify a password and login as that user.
$ sudo adduser bcoin
$ sudo su - bcoin
Check the latest version of bcoin on https://github.com/bcoin-org/bcoin/tags and download the code.
$ git clone --depth 1 --branch v2.1.2 https://github.com/bcoin-org/bcoin.git
$ cd bcoin
Then rebuild the bcoin package. This can take a pretty long time.
$ npm rebuild
Let's test it!
$ ./bin/bcoin
It should now start downloading and parsing blocks. Press Ctrl-C to stop downloading so we can change some settings first.
Bcoin Setup
[OPTIONAL] Setup SSL and create private key and certificate.
$ cd
$ cd .bcoin
$ mkdir ssl
$ cd ssl
$ openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -new -nodes -x509 -days 3650 -keyout privkey.pem -out cert.pem
[OPTIONAL] Setup firewall. Depends of course on the system and firewall you are using.
$ sudo ufw allow 28332
Go to the newly create .bcoin directory in the home folder and create a bcoin.conf file.
$ cd
$ cd .bcoin
$ nano bcoin.conf
Add the following contents to the bcoin.conf file. The main settings are put there as an example. Update to your own needs and make sure to create your own secure API key. For more configuration settings see https://github.com/bcoin-org/bcoin/blob/master/docs/configuration.md
# Bcoin.conf configuration example by Coineva
#
# HTTP host to listen on (default: 127.0.0.1). Use 0.0.0.0 to listen to all
http-host: 0.0.0.0
# HTTP port to listen on (default: 8332 for mainnet). Use another port if a bitcoind node is already running
#http-port: 28332
# Port to listen on (default: 8333)
#port: 28333
# Index transactions (enables transaction endpoints in REST api)
index-tx: true
# Index transactions and utxos by address
index-address: true
# Public host and port to advertise on network
#public-host: 0.0.0.0
#public-port: 8444
# API key - Please enter your own secure (hexadecimal) key!
api-key: replace-with-long-and-random-api-key
# Use SSL
ssl: true
ssl-cert: @/ssl/cert.pem
ssl-key: @/ssl/privkey.pem
Now test again and see if 'txindexer' and 'addrindexer' show up in the logs. Abort with Ctrl-C
$ ~/bcoin/bin/bcoin
Create a service and download blockchain
Create a service to manage the bcoin process.
$ logout
$ sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/bcoin.service
[Unit]
Description=Bcoin daemon
After=network.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/home/bcoin/bcoin/bin/bcoin --daemon
# Process management
####################
Type=forking
Restart=on-failure
TimeoutStopSec=600
# Directory creation and permissions
####################################
User=bcoin
Group=bcoin
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Start service and check status.
$ sudo systemctl start bcoin
$ sudo systemctl status bcoin
Enable at startup.
$ sudo systemctl enable bcoin
Some command to check the progress of your download and logs.
$ sudo su - bcoin
$ ./bcoin/bin/bcoin-cli info
$ ./bcoin/bin/bcoin-cli --help
$ tail -f .bcoin/debug.log
Your full Bcoin node is now up and running! Downloading and parsing the blockchain can hours or days, depending on the system.
You can run some tests to see if everything is working.
$ sudo su - bcoin
$ cd bcoin/bin
$ ./bcoin-cli block 0
$ ./bcoin-cli tx 1HLoD9E4SDFFPDiYfNYnkBLQ85Y51J3Zb1
$ ./bcoin-cli rpc getrawtransaction 9b0fc92260312ce44e74ef369f5c66bbb85848f2eddd5a7a1cde251e54ccfdd5
For a full list of commands run 'bcoin-cli help' or 'bcoin-cli rpc help'. All documentation of Bcoin can be found at https://github.com/bcoin-org/bcoin/tree/master/docs
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