Best Crypto Software for Raspberry Pi 5

Raspiblitz, Umbrel, myNode... those are popular choices.

Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend any of those. My go-to is RaspiBolt. It's awesome for learning and really flexible. For plug-and-play, try Start9 OS. Much better maintained than what’s been mentioned.

I didn’t list RaspiBolt first for a reason. When’s the last time you used Start9? It's in beta, a bit lacking in features and setup can be a hassle. If you’re not ready to follow instructions, don’t bother.

Last time was maybe two years back. I had both Bitcoin and Monero nodes running, also used robosats and LND. Check this tutorial if you’re interested. It’s pretty good.

Wow, two years is ages. What’s your setup now? Umbrel seems to be the favorite. By the way, don't use Raspberry Pi for Start9, it’s not a good fit for running Bitcoin software.

Right now, I’m working with: (a) Raspibolt as my full node (b) Bitcoin Core on a pruned node. I just found Umbrel packed in tools not really tied to Bitcoin.

1TB seems tight for Bitcoin Core without pruning though. It takes up like 700GB for blocks, and if your SSD is budget QLC, it might slow down under heavy loads. But for learning, it should be alright.

And let’s not forget, the blockchain is always growing. A 1TB drive won’t last long term.

That’s a solid setup. I’ve got around 682GB in blocks and 11GB for chainstate. Running on a 1TB Silicon Power SSD as well. If my RPi5 turns out well, I plan on getting an Argon case and maybe a 2TB m.2 drive.

With 953GB available, you’re good for a couple of years if the chain only grows 90GB annually. The Argon case would definitely help with cooling once you upgrade.

Yeah, but that 90GB growth a year could make 2TB unsustainable in about 5-6 years. Right now, the Bitcoin blockchain is sitting at around 770GB total.

Props to the developers for optimizing the transaction sizes. Satoshi aimed for anyone to run a node easily. The whole satoshi cap of 21 million was calculated with long-term sustainability in mind.

Good point about the SSD space. I plan on using my 1TB drive for a while, 693GB used out of 953GB.

I wanted to suggest Raspibolt but their guide is outdated for the RPi OS based on Debian Bookworm.

Nah, it’s not outdated. Start9 still lists it as current info. Lots of misinformation floating around.

I’ve got a minimal Raspibolt setup with just Tor and Bitcoin Core on a Raspberry Pi 4B. Might not be fast, but it works.

Did you transfer blocks from other drives? I’m still waiting for my RPi5 to arrive. I’ll connect it to my 1TB SSD to test things out.

I have a few RPi 4Bs around. My oldest setup is a RaspiBlitz with a 1TB SSD. I also have an Umbrel node for some testing. Soon grabbing a RPi5 to upgrade.

How many Pi’s have you got? I’m planning on copying my Bitcoin blocks to the m.2 drive when I get it.

Good call, using a mini PC instead of a Pi might be wiser. Better CPU performance and storage options.