diff --git a/examples/deploy-nixops.sh b/examples/deploy-nixops.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..a50aba2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/deploy-nixops.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# This script demonstrates how to setup a VirtualBox nix-bitcoin node with nixops.
+# Running this script leaves no traces on your host system.
+
+# This demo is a template for your own experiments.
+# Feel free to modify or to run nix-shell and execute individual statements of this
+# script in the interactive shell.
+
+if [[ ! -v IN_NIX_SHELL ]]; then
+    echo "Running script in nix shell env..."
+    exec nix-shell --run "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}"
+fi
+
+# Cleanup on exit
+cleanup() {
+    set +e
+    if nixops list | grep -q bitcoin-node; then
+        nixops destroy --confirm -d bitcoin-node
+    fi
+    rm -rf $tmpDir
+}
+trap "cleanup" EXIT
+
+tmpDir=/tmp/nix-bitcoin-nixops
+mkdir -p $tmpDir
+
+# Don't write nixops and VirtualBox data to the $USER's home
+export HOME=$tmpDir
+
+# Disable interactive queries and don't write to the $USER's known_hosts file
+export NIXOPS_SSH_OPTS="-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null"
+
+nixops create nixops/node.nix nixops/node-vbox.nix -d bitcoin-node
+nixops deploy -d bitcoin-node
+
+# Connect to node
+nixops ssh bitcoin-node systemctl status bitcoind
+
+# Cleanup happens at exit (see above)
diff --git a/pkgs/nixops/release.nix.patch b/pkgs/nixops/release.nix.patch
index c54432a..734159b 100644
--- a/pkgs/nixops/release.nix.patch
+++ b/pkgs/nixops/release.nix.patch
@@ -43,3 +43,14 @@
                                     ('destDir',     'string'),
                                     ('user',        'string'),
                                     ('group',       'string'),
+
+--- a/nixops/ssh_util.py
++++ b/nixops/ssh_util.py
+@@ -278,6 +278,7 @@ class SSH(object):
+
+         'timeout' specifies the SSH connection timeout.
+         """
++        flags = shlex.split(os.getenv('NIXOPS_SSH_OPTS', '')) + flags
+         master = self.get_master(flags, timeout, user)
+         flags = flags + self._get_flags()
+         if logged: