http://www.PiNode.co.uk

Hi all,

This is a plug for a beginner friendly project of mine that is non-profit and educational offering free full guides on the construction and configuration of single-board-computers for full node applications.

I've been working on this for a couple of years adding new coins and guides over time.

All guides offer screenshots, copy/pate commands and where required a description of what each command is doing.

This is a great opportunity for new enthusiasts to learn the purpose and role of nodes in the network and be a part of it. The nodes in my guides are built with readily available components such as the Raspberry Pi 3, and cheaply available LCD screens and are a great talking point to have running on a desk or shelf displaying Coin stats/network stats or family pictures (whatever really!) and Wifi connected.




Guides are currently available for:

• Bitcoin BTC
• Bitcoin Cash [BCH]
• Litecoin [LTC]
• Monero [XMR]
• DogeCoin [Doge]
• GameCredits [GMC]
• Ethereum [ETH]
• DASH
• PIVX
• PinkCoin [Pinp]
• BlackCoin [BLK]

With other projects hosted including cloud-storage projects SIA and STORJ on 30W single board computers. There is also BURST mining guides available with very low power usage along with other add-ons such as mining and vanity address generation.

In all a great place for self build Crypto curiosities

Regularly updated and maintained.

These guides work on any single board computer with a ARM Cortex-A53 processor. A full list of compatible hardware can be found here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_single-board_computers

So check it out...

http://www.PiNode.co.uk



Dan

[Support at /r/PiNode]

Hi all, bit of an update...


I've found that adding guides for Proof of stake coins now adds earning potential. Proof of stake guides available for

* BlackCoin
* PIVX
* Pinkcoin
* Dash

Also nearly all guides are compatible with Pine64 device which has higher RAM specs.

Guides work with any ARM Cortex A-53 processor listed here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_single-board_computers#CPU,_GPU,_memory

Any further ideas to make nodes more appealing?

Dan[/list]

Hiya all, just finished installing PinkCoin wallet/node on a Raspberry Pi3. This running 24/7 should be far more energy conservative for those green minded one's of you. (Approx 10w power consumption).

I've created a full guide, with screenshots, commands and required hardware list. All free.

As it's a new guide feedback would be great, either here (PM) or as direct reply. Alternatively I have a reddit sub /r/PiNode.

Full library of guides @ http://www.pinode.co.uk

Or direct link to PinkCoin guide @ https://pinode.weebly.com/pinkcoin.html

Cheers,
Dan

Wow, that does sound like a Web of passwords. I can see your intention but that seems a little excessive withe encrypted RAR files.

I was using the Truecrypt example as it's a reasonably user friendly method that is free and works for all coins/wallets.

Hardware wallets are deffinatly the best for usability however not every coin is supported yet. I'm looking out for when someone makes one that supports Monero (I don't think they're far off ). It's deffinatly easier to spend coins using a ledger or treezor, but if you just hodl then Truecrypt will do.

Has anyone else had a go at making one of these yet using laser printer toner and then etching?

If you're not interested in money, and just want a crypto related project for a Pi maybe check out "Vanity Addresses". The Pi (whatever version) is quite happy crunching those.

Basically they can make you a bitcoin address personalized with your name/company. For example for my PiNode website my Raspberry Pi made me the address and private key for 1PiNodezERskPzM6iWDfepPxdEWhiKvwm1.

More info https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Vanitygen

The software also does litecoin/doge/gamecredits addresses.

If you wanted to make money there is also a vanity address pool with bounties for making addresses other perple have demanded https://vanitypool.appspot.com/availableWork




If you're interested I've made full guides with screenshots on how to set it up at https://pinode.weebly.com/bitcoin-vanity-address.html

As requested, fire test results night.  

A little overdue, but tonight was cold enough at home to light up the fire and put in the test piece.



The fire, coal at its base, a mix of softwoods above.

The test piece is in centrally and the fire was kept fuelled at a level similar to what's pictured above for roughly 3 hours. When adding new logs the metal could be seen to be glowing orange/red.



End of the evening, metal cooled slowly.



Lightly brushed (dry) to remove soot. Some letters obscured.



Next cleaned with a mild abrasive (plastic dish sponge and water).



First observation - The heat of the fire appears to have melted the copper. The copper was the decorative plating added to the bitcoin logo and lightly to the lettering. The now seems to be the orange splodge in the middle of the card. A google of coppers melting point puts that at 1,085'C. A search for typical fireplace temps ball park figures depending on fuels for anything between 800'c to the max theoretical adiabatic flame being 1977'C.
According to http://www.doctorfire.com/flametmp.html a typical house fire reaches as sustains around 1097'C. More to read there if you're interested.

Lettering now is readable with just 4 of the characters in the private key obscured beyond certain readability. An 'E' could be an 'F' in the end of the top row and the 'v' at that point was now readable.



So I moved on....



These last two pictures are after a clean/light scrub with "Brasso" metal polish. I'm sure any light abrasive cleaning fluid would do.
This made a huge difference and removed a lot of debris from the fire. All letters a lot clearer now.



It's tricky to photograph but I assure you the private key was then legible with then just 2 characters requiring some time/interrogation to confirm.



Where to go from here -

If the purpose of making these was purely for function then I don't recommend the decorative copper plating on the logo/text. Coppers melting point is too low for this task. It may also cause issues in several year with corrosion on it's own or though the effect of dissimilar metal corrosion. The stainless steel card handled the heat very well. There is a slight deformity in the centre of the card. Perhaps 5mm in length, a slight shallow dent. I suspect the metal may have softened slightly in the heat and the addition of a weighty log may have caused it.

I would, in my next test, etch slightly deeper to aid in the reading of the text.

But to conclude I regard the prototype a success and it performed it's purpose. For a homemade DIY project that has sat at around 1000'C for the past 3 hours it's handled it well. That test piece was only the second I've ever made and I'm certain my next will be significantly better with those improvements.


I hope this helps and I'm happy to answer any questions about this, or to help someone with anything regarding giving this a go for themselves.

So Segwit2x is on hold for now so why not support Core 15.0.1, (the latest release).

I make guides to make DIY Bitcoin Full nodes that support the blockchain, enforce the network rules and help distribute the transactions to miners.

It's a really cheap and easy project. I've included a full hardware list to get you started along with all the commands with their description to simply copy and paste. No previous experience needed and you'll learn along along the way.

Plenty of options to choose from, whether you want an LCD display too, go dark and support anonymity with  a TOR node or just keep it simple.

http://pinode.co.uk

Has the full Library to browse, all using approx 10w of power or less!

A completed node below, it displays live transactions, price and network statistics. A good talking point that sits on my desk.

Yeah, to replicate it exactly then the laser etcher was something like this one...

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F282624625105

And as for chemicals it is just table salt and water for the etching solution. The added copper sulphate is optional and only about £3 on ebay or amazon.

As I've said before though this can be done with a paper laser toner printer to the same effect, and heat transfer the image to the metal before etching. Someone did this years ago and made a guide here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/A-Stainless-Steel-Bitcoin-Wallet/

There are easy ways to avoid the setup costs, the easiest by having access to the office printer at your work would do it.

1) My short guide is here https://pinode.weebly.com/hardened-cold-storage.html but in steps it took...
* Create the vanity address and key with a Raspberry Pi, 2 days (unnecessary from a security point of view) but if you're interested https://pinode.weebly.com/bitcoin-vanity-address.html
* Paint metal card with nail polish and mark design into the polish 40mins
* Prep the etching solution and electrodes 15mins
* Etching 2 mins
* Cleanup of the finished card 30mins

* Total 2 hours with added messing about, second guessing, checking etc

(The design was marked with a cheap laser etcher but can also be done with a laser toner printer, heat transferred on with a household iron.)

2) Now it's getting colder here in the UK I'll be testing it in the fire soon. In theory it should be fine but I'll post the results here with pictures when I have them.



My first thought was using letter stamps too. I ran into problems.
1) The stamps needed to be upper and lower case due to case sensitive keys and addresses.
2) Aluminium stamped well, but has a low melting point.
3) Metals that had a higher melting point are considerably harder than aluminium and did not stamp well at all, barely left an impression.
4) As I continued practicing with the aluminium it was very hard to stamp the many characters in neat straight lines. End result was very amateur.

If you're looking for a hand engraver and it gets to around £50 then I would instead recommend looking at getting the laser etcher I did. The laser etches wood, paper and most plastics. Then to etch metal and glass it can still do the marking out very neatly into nail polish, then apply glass etching gel or immerse into a chemical bath for metal as I did.

Has anyone else had a go at making one yet? Or thinking of giving it a go?

I don't really care too much about the design. The old one was more than functional. My concern for everything bitcoin is security, and although this is very low risk as the site owners only have the lending keys, but if the domain had been bought out by someone else on renewal and were phishing for access to the old site.... Again I don't think anything bad could happen, it's just bad practice for this to happen without an official notification.

K, I'll just login then. I would have expected some announcement though of a new design/domain/everything.

Any news on the re-branding/re-design of the Poloniex Lending Bot site? Is this genuine or has the domain been bought?

https://www.poloniexlendingbot.com/

redirects to ->

https://aivren.com/

Yeah, there is no way you should share your private key to anyone to make something like this. It really was simple and cheap to make.. Another user did this in a similar way in 2013 with print toner http://www.instructables.com/id/A-Stainless-Steel-Bitcoin-Wallet/.

Out of curiosity has anyone else had success with a different method? I think my method is very cheap but it's only the masking of the etching area that if delicate/most costly.

I've heard there are some commercial powders that can be bonded to metals with a laser. And a home method that  achieves the same with plaster of paris and isopropol alcohol. I'll give it a try the next rainy day in I get.

Also, how about storing it in a zip lock bag with some desiccant (the sachet from my next pair of new shoes). Or rice. By preventing the moisture in the air getting to it degrading of the metal would be a lot slower. It is stainless steel so it will be very very slow, and on my first test I left the back exposed when etching and it just "pitted" rather than an all over rust.

I can use a propane torch and get it to 2000F but I'm not sure that's a fair test:


Using the propane torch to me seems more like a test of the metal quality/spec than proof of survivability. I could easily have spent 8x more on really high quality steel/titanium/tungsten to be certain it would survive but that takes it out of the realms of an affordable home project for most people.

 I got the metal business cards from ebay, and as it's a prototype it was on the cheap. I think all steel has a melting point above what my open fire produces (and a house fire), my concern is that the card softens and distorts before that melting point, if it does I would consider it a failure.

Yes, again just a test piece. To save you time from typing in the address to check here's what's on the card:

Address: 1PiNodemHPYocq6dRw9JhN5f8N1nC2VfXQ
Privkey: 5KYbHUHB4Bwa87pEvBgb4Aqj6KsRjCGiuvgNCHruz698MNwQpDJ

You're welcome to anything on it 'cause I didn't put it there.  

As for storage though it would be sensible to obscure the private key. Stop someone finding it and taking a picture/writing down the key. I was thinking a tamper proof label would achieve this? Any thoughts?

(It's a label that disintegrates when peeled, revealing "void" in the hologram)

Back to OP, for cost effectiveness I wouldn't recommend a hardware wallet. Yes they are great, but they are great for regular user interaction, for people needing a secure way to spend your funds without exposing keys/passwords. This is not the case the OP is asking, he/she wants a way to store keys and deposit funds only.

Once a wallet has been created and the Private key backed up somewhere (using any of the methods suggested by other users) he/she will only need the address to keep sending funds to that wallet and increase the balance. Online exchanges and merchants usually have an address book feature to make repeat payments.

A hardware wallet in this case is an unnecessary expense (they're not cheap). An encrypted container on a USB stick would serve the same purpose on a $5 USB drive, keys stored on the drive, address kept in the address book of where ever you'r buying them from, (I assume an online wallet/exchange).

Another option is to use a trusted program like "Veracrypt" (it's the new maintained version of Truecrypt) to create encrypted containers.

It basically makes a virtual disk drive of a user defined size, the contents of which is encrypted with AES-256. To quote https://veracrypt.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=AES

"In June 2003, after the NSA (US National Security Agency) conducted a review and analysis of AES, the U.S. CNSS (Committee on National Security Systems) announced in [1] that the design and strength of AES-256 (and AES-192) are sufficient to protect classified information up to the Top Secret level."

For example make a 20Mb encrypted container, secure it with a strong password, and put your backups in it. You can then email this file to yourself, keep it in your google drive, or keep it on a USB stick.

The encryption is good enough that the computer power required to break it would be better off mining blocks themselves for the 12.5 reward.