Running your own node is one of the biggest super powers that you have in Bitcoin and Litecoin. You get to validate your own transactions, you keep the miners honest, and you also have some privacy benefits — your wallet’s public key doesn’t get shared with someone else’s server, so nobody else can know which transactions and addresses belong to you unless you voluntarily reveal it!

But most importantly, a Litecoin full node gives you the ability to try the latest features before everyone else: MWEB, ordinals, runes, and everything else that’s coming. Since Litecoin Core is the most important piece of software in the ecosystem, it’s the most battle-tested and developed one — to the extent that it can take the other wallets years until they catch up with the latest developments.

To put it plainly, you’re not a first class Litecoin user until you spin up your own node and actually use it. The good news is that, if you’re reading this, you most likely already have what you need in order to enjoy the fully sovereign and much more private experience.

If you own a computer that’s newer than 10 years and have access to the internet, then you already have the power! All you need to do is head over to litecoin. org and click on the ”Download” button on the top menu. Depending on the operating system that you’re using on your computer, you can opt for Litecoin Core on Windows, MacOS and Linux.

While the principle of ”the best computer for a node is the one that you already have” applies, it’s highly recommended that you run the Litecoin software on a user-friendly Linux distribution such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint. Apple’s MacOS is the second best in terms of security, as it’s UNIX-based and has a much better record of patching security exploits. While using Windows for your Litecoin node is possible, it’s also the least secure approach — there’s so much malware that’s created every day for Microsoft’s OS that it’s probably better to dual boot Linux on your PC. It’s not difficult, there are hundreds of tutorials on YouTube that will show you how to do it, and it can be an educational experience for those who are just dipping their toes into the world of free open source operating systems. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this on your home or work computer, you can pick up an old laptop, format the hard drive (if you’re paranoid, you can replace it entirely!), and then do a clean installation of Linux Mint — they made it so similar with Windows in terms of user experience, that you won’t even realize that you’re using something new!

Once you figure out the hardware and a software, it’s time to ask yourself this: do you want to run a full archival node or a pruned node? The former will store on your hard drive the entire history of transactions on the Litecoin blockchain, from its creation in October 2011 and all the way to present. In total, you will need at least 91 GB of storage on your hard drive — if you don’t have it, you can buy an external SSD for the purpose of storing your new node’s data. On the other hand, a pruned node allows you to decide how many gigabytes of the entire blockchain you will be storing on your computer. There is no difference between the two approaches in terms of validation and time: they will perform the same task, except that the pruned node deletes older blocks while adding more recent ones.

Even on a low-powered device such as the Raspberry Pi 4, syncing a full Litecoin node from genesis block shouldn’t take longer than a day. All you have to do is leave the computer on running Litecoin Core, and make sure that your internet connection is always enabled.

But if you do care about sync time and you own a more powerful machine, here are a few tricks to speed up your initial blockchain download (IBD):

After the Initial Block Download is over, you can officially call yourself a node runner. However, the node itself is pretty pointless if you don’t use it. So make sure you send and receive transactions from Litecoin Core — and whenever you can, peg your coins into MWEB to increase privacy and fungibility. All you have to do is go to the “Receive” tab, tick the “Generate MWEB address” box, and then click on “Create new receiving address”. Copy this address (it must start with the distinctive prefix “ltcmweb”), then switch to the “Send” tab and paste your MWEB address to the “Pay To:” field.

If you want to select which UTXO (basically a wallet pocket which is distinct from all the others) will get pegged into MWEB, then open the “Preferences” menu and navigate to the “Wallet” tab. Here, you must tick the “Enable Coin Control” box and hit the “OK” button. Now the “Send” section of the wallet will include a new button called “Inputs…” which allows you to see every individual UTXO in your wallet. Pick which one you want to peg into MWEB (you can select multiples, but it’s generally bad for privacy to create a link between two of your UTXOs because you narrow down your deniability), then double check that the MWEB address you pasted is correct and set the transaction fee (generally, 0.001 LTC per kilobyte is enough for a next block confirmation; but just to be sure, verify the recommended fees on a block explorer such as litecoinspace.org and blockchair.com/litecoin — you can also use your own node’s estimation to determine the correct next block fee, but checking with third party sources can be a good idea for finding objectivity).

Once you entered all the details, double check the input data and hit “Send”. You will see a final screen which tells you how much LTC you’re sending, to which address, and how much you’re paying in fees. If everything is correct, proceed to confirm — this will sign and broadcast your transaction across the network. If you’re using this process to peg into MWEB via self-transfer, your node will also instantly notify you about the incoming transaction… and within a few minutes your LTC will have enough confirmations to be safe to spend. Next time you make a transaction, make sure you choose your MWEB inputs (unless you’re dealing with a very strict KYC exchange that demands absolute transparency for the origin of your funds). Remember that increasing activity and demand for MWEB will normalize the use of privacy in general and create a much healthier culture which opposes an Orwellian future.

Another useful way to integrate your node into your daily transaction flow is to take the IP address of your Litecoin Core node and paste it into Litewallet for a serious dose of sovereign mobile use. In your Litewallet phone app, go to Menu —> Settings —> Advanced Settings —> Litecoin Nodes —> Switch to Manual Mode. Next up, type the IP address which points to your node and you’re good to go! However, remember that you will have to keep the computer node online every time you want to check your balance or send transactions from Litewallet. Sovereignty is not always the most convenient approach — but if you care about privacy and decentralization, you should make an effort towards it. After all, you don’t need to keep your Litecoin Core node online 24/7: just make sure you start it up when you’re about to use it.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t only work with Litewallet — I’ve only recommended the most popular mobile wallet, which benefits from active development. Any existing or future mobile wallet that’s dedicated to Litecoin should enable you to change the SPV server. It should also be noted that the BitBox02 hardware wallet features a native desktop and mobile app that lets you make use of your personal Litecoin node. Don’t underestimate the sovereignty you can get from this type of setup — and if you order a BitBox02 and wish to get a 5% discount, use promo code BTCTKVR at checkout.

For those who want to take a deep dive into setting up home nodes to include port forwarding and a static IP address (very useful for using on a mobile wallet or on a hardware wallet such as BitBox02), you should definitely check out the excellent guide published at lookintolitecoin. com/fullnode. The article URL has also been saved on the WayBack machine, so you can type it in the archive.org search box even if the website goes offline. If you need more advanced features, you might need to look into Electrum servers (an extra indexing layer that can be used to power up SPV wallets).

paying in fees. If everything is correct, proceed to confirm — this will sign and broadcast your transaction across the network. If you’re using this process to peg into MWEB via self-transfer, your node will also instantly notify you about the incoming transaction… and within a few minutes your LTC will have enough confirmations to be safe to spend. Next time you make a transaction, make sure you choose your MWEB inputs (unless you’re dealing with a very strict KYC exchange that demands absolute transparency for the origin of your funds). Remember that increasing activity and demand for MWEB will normalize the use of privacy in general and create a much healthier culture which opposes an Orwellian future.

Another useful way to integrate your node into your daily transaction flow is to take the IP address of your Litecoin Core node and paste it into Litewallet for a serious dose of sovereign mobile use. In your Litewallet phone app, go to Menu —> Settings —> Advanced Settings —> Litecoin Nodes —> Switch to Manual Mode. Next up, type the IP address which points to your node and you’re good to go! However, remember that you will have to keep the computer node online every time you want to check your balance or

send transactions from Litewallet. Sovereignty is not always the most convenient approach — but if you care about privacy and decentralization, you should make an effort towards it. After all, you don’t need to keep your Litecoin Core node online 24/7: just make sure you start it up when you’re about to use it.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t only work with Litewallet — I’ve only recommended the most popular mobile wallet, which benefits from active development. Any existing or future mobile wallet that’s dedicated to Litecoin should enable you to change the SPV server. It should also be noted that the BitBox02 hardware wallet features a native desktop and mobile app that lets you make use of your personal Litecoin node. Don’t underestimate the sovereignty you can get from this type of setup — and if you order a BitBox02 and wish to get a 5% discount, use promo code BTCTKVR at checkout.

For those who want to take a deep dive into setting up home nodes to include port forwarding and a static IP address (very useful for using on a mobile wallet or on a hardware wallet such as BitBox02), you should definitely check out the excellent guide published at lookintolitecoin. com/fullnode. The article URL has also

Your Litecoin Core node can also be used in the context of minting ordinal inscriptions and etching runes — as a matter of fact, the ord software client requires it. Inserting arbitrary data into the blockchain through these protocols can only be performed in the presence of a full node. So if you’re already running one, then you can start a fun project through which you create collectibles that will forever exist on the Litecoin blockchain. Just keep in mind that ordinals are a non-monetary use of the block space, so don’t abuse them to the point that you make transaction fees high and validation slow for everyone else — however, such a feat requires you to pay a lot of LTC in transaction fees and the Litecoin miners would most likely feel very happy if there was more demand for block space.

Litecoin Core is the software where all the significant upgrades happen first. So if you’re serious about your sovereignty and wish to explore the Litecoin ecosystem in the most uncompromising way out there, you should definitely sync one as soon as possible. It can be a fun and educational weekend project that will help you understand why decentralization matters and why this money network is unstoppable. Have fun staying sovereign!

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