Additional Information
Don’t trust, verify. Don’t rely on other people to run a Node for you. Just do it yourself, with our DIY Kit.
Which OS should I use?
I recommend FOSS options like Raspiblitz or RunCitadel, or RoninDojo, but of course there are lots of other great options out there. I personally use Raspiblitz and RunCitadel, as such, I can recommend them from experience. RoninDojoUI is a new privacy focused UI built by the Samourai Wallet community, which also looks promising.
Depending on your skill level, pick the OS which suits you best. RunCitadel is probably the easiest to set up, but still in development. Raspiblitz is perfectly stable, very well maintained, and the recommended way to go for beginners. Yes, Umbrel exists, but ask yourself if there’s a point in running a Bitcoin node if it’s not FOSS.
Of course, you can also run Bitcoin Core and LND or c-lightning from source, if you know how to, that’s obviously the best choice.
A bitcoin node enables you to interact with the bitcoin network.
If you do not use your own node, you are using someone else's node, trusting them with privacy & verification. That person or entity can be pressured or compromised to gather info about you and your transactions.
— ODELL (@ODELL) March 8, 2022
Resources:
Cold_Sats Medium Post – How to bootstrap a profitable lightning network node
Voltage Cloud Blog – Top 5 Lightning Network Resources for Beginners
