How to Install Bitcoin-node on Debian 9 Stretch Linux

Objective

The objective is to install latest Bitcoin-node binaries on Debian 9 Stretch Linux.

Operating System and Software Versions

• Operating System: - Debian 9 Stretch
• Software: - Bitcoin 0.14.1

Requirements

Privileged access to your Debian system will be required.

Difficulty

EASY

Conventions

• # - requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
• $ - requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Instructions

Download Latest Bitcoin Binaries

First, download the latest BitCoin binaries from the official https://bitcoin.org/bin/ URL. Alternatively, use wget command while updating bitcoin version where appropriate:

$ wget  https://bitcoin.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.14.1/bitcoin-0.14.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz

The Bitcoin tarball should now be inside your working directory:

$ ls
bitcoin-0.14.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz

Install Bitcoin Node

To install Bitcoin node first extract the Bitcoin tarball:

$ tar xzf bitcoin-0.14.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz

Next, run install command to install Bitcoin binaries:

# install -m 0755 -o root -g root -t /usr/local/bin bitcoin-0.14.1/bin/*

Start Bitcoin Daemon

Lastly, start Bitcoin daemon:

$ bitcoind -daemon
Bitcoin server starting

Confirm the correct start of the Bitcoin daemon by retrieving your bitcoin node info:

$ bitcoin-cli getmininginfo
{
  "blocks": 217912,
  "currentblocksize": 0,
  "currentblockweight": 0,
  "currentblocktx": 0,
  "difficulty": 2968775.332075074,
  "errors": "",
  "networkhashps": 22949941549789.36,
  "pooledtx": 0,
  "chain": "main"
}

Alternatively your should see ports 8332 and 8333 opened by bitcoin daemon when running ss -antp command.

Additional Information

The block chain will be synchronized into ~/.bitcoin directory so you can expect this directory to grow drastically. To stop bitcoin node run:

$ bitcoin-cli stop