Running a Lightning node

this tutorial is provided as learning purpose

Nothing special Please only run, this in public internet, if you know what you are doing

requirements

• mainnet 250go
• testnet 25go
• debian stretch
• bitcoin - v0.16.3
• lightningd - v0.6.2

basis

install some tools

apt update && apt upgrade
apt-get install git build-essential htop tmux -y

linux

here, we use debian. There is no perfect distribution. Debian as a good security focus and stable environment.

When interacting with this tutorial. Your default user should not be root.

firewall

• blocks all ports except SSH/bitcoind(8333)/lightningd
• temporary open git/apt/80/443

Excellent tutorial are available in the web.

first - bitcoin

impl

Bitcoin as 3 majors implementations for server

• bitcoind maintain by bitcoin core developers and bitcoin developers
• btcd maintain by The btcsuite developers
• libbitcoin

We use bitcoind

deps version

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/dependencies.md

install required package

apt update
apt install autoconf libboost-all-dev libssl-dev libtool libevent-dev libminiupnpc-dev pkg-config -y

building & install libdb

this is the library that store chain history.

wget 'http://download.oracle.com/berkeley-db/db-4.8.30.NC.tar.gz'
tar -xzvf db-4.8.30.NC.tar.gz
cd db-4.8.30.NC/build_unix/
../dist/configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-cxx
make
sudo make install

building & install protobuf

install via apt should be v3.0.0

apt-get install libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler

or

if you want exact version

git clone https://github.com/google/protobuf.git
cd protobuf
git checkout v2.6.1
git submodule update --init --recursive
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
make check
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig # refresh shared library cache for linux.

exports for bitcoind compilation

export BDB_INCLUDE_PATH="/usr/local/BerkeleyDB.4.8/include"
export BDB_LIB_PATH="/usr/local/BerkeleyDB.4.8/lib"
ln -s /usr/local/BerkeleyDB.4.8/lib/libdb-4.8.so /usr/local/lib/libdb-4.8.so

compiling bitcoind

git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git
cd bitcoin
git checkout v0.16.3
./autogen.sh
./configure CXXFLAGS="--param ggc-min-expand=1 --param ggc-min-heapsize=32768" --enable-cxx --disable-shared --with-pic --without-gui --prefix=/usr/local/ LDFLAGS="-L$BDB_LIB_PATH -L/usr/local/lib -L." CPPFLAGS="-I$BDB_INCLUDE_PATH -I/include/google/protobuf"
make
sudo make install

without => self explaining enable-cxx => because client have c++ code disable shared => as you like if you prefer portable or shared libs with-pic => position independant code prefix => where the binary is installed

create user

adduser bitcoin

create your datadir

target a place with sufficient space, here we just do it in /opt

mkdir -p /opt/bitcoin-data
chown bitcoin:bitcoin /opt/bitcoin-data

dropin your bitcoin.conf

Look at bitcoin.conf, rpc access is not setup. Make sure you have rpc/zmq interface and txindex=1. Copy bitcoin.conf in the data directory.

cp bitcoin.conf /opt/bitcoin-data

generate rpc access

From the bitcoin repository's root, run the following command (replacing {{login-name}} with the login name of your choice):

./share/rpcauth/rpcauth.py {{login-name}}

This script will gave you the rpc access line to replace in bitcoin.conf and give you password to be used to connect to rpc socket.

launch bitcoin daemon - bitcoind

as user bitcoin, launch bitcoin daemon

su bitcoin
bitcoind -datadir=/opt/bitcoin-data

or

bitcoind -datadir=/opt/bitcoin-data -testnet=1

for testnet

look at logs - debug.log

tail -f /opt/bitcoin-data/debug.log

interacting with bitcoin command line interface - bitcoin-cli

bitcoin-cli -datadir=/opt/bitcoin-data getblockcount

second - Lightning

new deps to install

sudo apt-get install -y \
  libgmp-dev \
  libsqlite3-dev python python3 net-tools zlib1g-dev

first we clone the project

git clone https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning.git
cd lightning
git checkout v0.6.2

then build it

make
sudo make install

chown -R bitcoin:bitcoin /opt/clightning/

run lightningd in testnet

su bitcoin
/usr/local/bin/lightningd --pid-file=/run/clightningd/lightningd.pid \
           --bitcoin-cli=/usr/local/bin/bitcoin-cli --bitcoin-datadir=/opt/bitcoin-data \
           --addr="{{ip_addr}}:9735" --alias={{super_alias}} \
           --lightning-dir=/opt/clightning/ --log-level=debug --network=testnet

interacting with lightning-cli

lightning-cli --lightning-dir=/opt/bitcoin-data getinfo

what next ?

• systemd
• tor
• rate limiting
• lightning charge
• enjoy