A new App will join Bitcoin and Lightning Network Nodes

A step-by-step guide simplify the process needed to create and add nodes on those platforms

Lightning Power Node Launcher is the name of the App that could facilitate the installation of Bitcoin and Lightning network. In order to achieve this, it requires a previous full synchronization on Bitcoin’s blockchain.

The Bitcoiner and Software Engineer Pierre Rochard was who created a step-by-step guide to install bitcoin and Lightning Network nodes (LN) through this new application.

The guide is used to configure both the main network and the Bitcoin and Lightning Network. The test was originally published at the end of November. It indicates the procedure and the requirements to install the nodes.

According to Rochard, the need for capacity to download and store is one of the reasons why there has been so much controversy surrounding the size limit of Bitcoin blocks. This is because the larger the blocks, the greater is the capacity required to synchronize and store the complete Bitcoin blockchain; which would leave out those who do not have that capacity.

Rochard developed the application and is who continuously make the corrections that it needs. The most recent version of this technology is 5.1.1, which includes bugfixes that prevented users from creating the LND portfolios. This platform was launched a few days ago.

How it Works

The expert explained that the bandwidth is one of the requirements to be considered to use this type of technology because it is necessary to synchronize completely with the Bitcoin’s chain to achieve the process and neutrine is not yet “mature” enough for the main Bitcoin network.

It is worth noting that Neutrino is a technology for light clients of LN thatallows users to do not administer a complete node, they can conducttransactions through this payment network.

“Your computer will have to download and store more than 210 GB of data from theInternet. Your bandwidth will be the bottleneck in this process, not your computer”, clarified the engineer. He also recommends a download bandwidth that is around 300 GB.

Rochard created a table to estimate the timing of the synchronization according to the type of connection and the download speed. This table allows users to know how much it could take to download the entire Bitcoin chain now, according to the Internet connection specifications of each of the users.

There exist others requirements. Rochard mentioned: around 7 GB of storage space and recommended more than 300 GB if the person wishes to have the Bitcoin transaction index.

As for the operating systems, both Windows and macOS are compatible. Linux is compatible too, but specialists recommend it only “if you are comfortable with the command line”.

Aftersynchronization, the Lightning Power Node Launcher comes into play, an application that allows synchronizing the main network and the Bitcoin test network to later start the Lightning Network Daemon and create an LN wallet in the computer.

Rochard is willing to help those who want to try using their guide and its application. He said that they can contact him through his email or his Twitter account. This same developer is the one behind the creation of a Microsoft Excel add-into send and receive payments in Lightning Network.

By María Rodríguez