f78ccbac34
83863c03e56fdea0cee48379d32ea03c35f99f35 use pinned nixpkgs-unstable for the test driver (Erik Arvstedt) 6fe647ecc45f2637dfd5f708c83c01a70e2edc4f spark-wallet, lightning-charge: specify mainchain network in clightning data dir (Erik Arvstedt) eaaa6b87013b06e91c4bb24d703c603a755f1dd7 clightning: update to v0.8.0 (Erik Arvstedt) 7dd5f01527749837ca451208c8a043c0089b5cf2 lightning-charge: 0.4.7 -> 0.4.14 (Erik Arvstedt) 8eb234635847eb3228a47dcd7fb4c7acfb175588 elementsd 0.18.1.1 -> 0.18.1.3 (Jonas Nick) d68b77c0caa5f8375f96c6b9b0e20c7bf651ecda spark-wallet 0.2.9 -> 0.2.12 (Jonas Nick) 4e7b67d5e7f6706f28a809357e7f152a341ed5ea Update nixpkgs (Jonas Nick) Pull request description: nixpkgs updates include ``` bitcoin: 0.18.1 -> 0.19.0.1 clightning: 0.7.3 -> 0.8.0 ``` Top commit has no ACKs. Tree-SHA512: c5a681bdcd3b1e7180ef21f3e6e5c14b78e5cbbf183b1dd221acdd70a810fb23e07d8dee2a1860ac110a78c4830af718794d34a0600367939cc90cba3c9619ac
nix-bitcoin
Nix packages and nixos modules for easily installing Bitcoin nodes and higher layer protocols with an emphasis on security. This is a work in progress - don't expect it to be bug free or secure.
The default configuration sets up a Bitcoin Core node and c-lightning. The user can enable spark-wallet in configuration.nix to make c-lightning accessible with a smartphone using spark-wallet.
A simple webpage shows the lightning nodeid and links to nanopos letting the user receive donations.
It also includes elements-daemon.
Outbound peer-to-peer traffic is forced through Tor, and listening services are bound to onion addresses.
A demo installation is running at http://6tr4dg3f2oa7slotdjp4syvnzzcry2lqqlcvqkfxdavxo6jsuxwqpxad.onion. The following screen cast shows a fresh deployment of a nix-bitcoin node.
The goal is to make it easy to deploy a reasonably secure Bitcoin node with a usable wallet. It should allow managing bitcoin (the currency) effectively and providing public infrastructure. It should be a reproducible and extensible platform for applications building on Bitcoin.
Available modules
By default the configuration.nix provides:
- bitcoind with outbound connections through Tor and inbound connections through a hidden service. By default loaded with banlist of spy nodes.
- clightning with outbound connections through Tor, not listening
- includes "nodeinfo" script which prints basic info about the node
- adds non-root user "operator" which has access to bitcoin-cli and lightning-cli
In configuration.nix the user can enable:
- a clightning hidden service
- liquid
- lightning charge
- nanopos
- an index page using nginx to display node information and link to nanopos
- spark-wallet
- electrs
- recurring-donations, a module to repeatedly send lightning payments to recipients specified in the configuration.
- bitcoin-core-hwi.
- You no longer need extra software to connect your hardware wallet to Bitcoin Core. Use Bitcoin Core's own Hardware Wallet Interface with one
configuration.nixsetting.
- You no longer need extra software to connect your hardware wallet to Bitcoin Core. Use Bitcoin Core's own Hardware Wallet Interface with one
The data directories of the services can be found in /var/lib on the deployed machines.
Installation
The easiest way is to run nix-shell (on a Linux machine) in the nix-bitcoin directory and then create a NixOps deployment with the provided network.nix in the network directory.
Fix the FIXMEs in configuration.nix and deploy with nixops in nix-shell.
See install.md for a detailed tutorial.
Security
- Simplicity: Only services you select in
configuration.nixand their dependencies are installed, packages and dependencies are pinned, most packages are built from the nixos stable channel, with a few exceptions that are built from the nixpkgs unstable channel, builds happen in a sandboxed environment, code is continiously reviewed and refined. - Integrity: Nix package manager, NixOS and packages can be built from source to reduce reliance on binary caches, nix-bitcoin merge commits are signed, all commits are approved by multiple nix-bitcoin developers, upstream packages are cryptographically verified where possible, we use this software ourselves.
- Principle of Least Privilege: Services operate with least privileges; they each have their own user and are restricted further with systemd options, there's a non-root user operator to interact with the various services.
- Defense-in-depth: nix-bitcoin is built with a hardened kernel by default, services are confined through discretionary access control, Linux namespaces, and seccomp-bpf with continuous improvements.
Note that nix-bitcoin is still experimental. Also, by design if the machine you're deploying from is insecure, there is nothing nix-bitcoin can do to protect itself.
Hardware requirements
- Disk space: 300 GB (235GB for Bitcoin blockchain + some room)
- Bitcoin Core pruning is not supported at the moment because it's not supported by c-lightning. It's possible to use pruning but you need to know what you're doing.
- RAM: 2GB of memory. ECC memory is better. Additionally, it's recommended to use DDR4 memory with targeted row refresh (TRR) enabled (https://rambleed.com/).
Tested hardware includes pcengine's apu2c4, GB-BACE-3150, GB-BACE-3160. Some hardware (including Intel NUCs) may not be compatible with the hardened kernel turned on by default (see https://github.com/fort-nix/nix-bitcoin/issues/39#issuecomment-517366093 for a workaround).
Usage
For usage instructions, such as how to connect to spark-wallet, electrs and the ssh Tor Hidden Service, see usage.md.
Troubleshooting
If you are having problems with nix-bitcoin check the FAQ or submit an issue.
There's also a #nix-bitcoin IRC channel on freenode.
We are always happy to help.