Setting Up an Electrum Server on Windows: Thoughts on Fulcrum

Thinking about setting up an Electrum server? Fulcrum is a solid choice for Windows users.

I already run Electrs and even wrote a tutorial, but I tested Fulcrum too. Figured I’d share some tips since it’s worth having a guide out there.

You should definitely mention the asc text in the OP. If GitHub gets compromised, users can verify the release easily. A little extra security never hurts, right?

I’m just a user, not the dev. I’d have to update the asc in the OP with every Fulcrum update, and that sounds like a hassle. Just check for the asc file that matches your download.

Thanks for the feedback! I got it running and monitored the sync process. It peaked at 1GB RAM usage while syncing but dropped down when idle.

Syncing does use up more resources, but honestly, that seems like decent performance for Windows. Would be cool to compare it to Electrum on WSL.

Hey all, just started syncing. But what exactly am I syncing? What’s the Electrum server downloading?

Yeah, you need to set txindex=1 in your Bitcoin Core config for this to work.

Bitcoin Core is syncing the whole blockchain, which is massive now. The Electrum server builds a database on top of that for easy access to info your wallet or block explorer needs. I think you can run without txindex, but it might slow things down.

I’m testing Fulcrum now on a 1TB spinning drive with an old i3 and 8GB RAM. Gonna see how it goes. Spinning drives suck but it’s what I have.

Any updates? I’m syncing slowly too. Had to pause for a few days and just restarted.

Core is still syncing slowly for me. My CPU keeps throttling for some reason. Thought about switching to another PC, but I’m curious how it’ll run on this old setup.

So you’re using just that spinning drive for everything? No other storage?

Yep, just that one disk. Trying to keep it simple. It’s like what someone would do if they dug out an old machine to run a node.

That’s fair! I’m running Bitcoin Core on an external HDD and it works fine after the initial sync.

Still working on syncing. I think we need clearer instructions for new users. Like, I had a Windows update that rebooted my PC and messed up my sync.

I get that. But what do you mean by the underlined text?

You’re right about using an SSD for the chainstate. It speeds things up a lot. A good dbcache helps too.

Has anyone tried comparing Fulcrum with Electrs? That performance article got me curious.

It really depends on your usage. If you want it running all the time, Fulcrum is better for performance. But if you only need it occasionally, Electrs might be fine.