Nice work! That’s exactly the kind of step more people should take if they really want to understand Bitcoin beyond just the price chart. Running your own node – even pruned – means you’re not relying on third-party explorers and you’re actually verifying your own transactions. That’s the whole point of decentralization.

I’m still running mine on local hardware, but VPS is a solid choice if you want 24/7 uptime without worrying about your own machine running all day. The main thing is to keep control of your setup and not just trust someone else’s node.

It’s a small step for you maybe, but for Bitcoin it’s a big deal – every additional honest node strengthens the network.