664c5c67628374da5cc615e49ae42ae3931c63fd Switch from python 3.5 to python 3.x for trezor (Jonas Nick) 8dd27b63341e1013142125366130b63811393dfe Use types.str instead of types.string to avoid warning (Jonas Nick) 09d2df1a81e0d8b9ad2631e96c6e875a82d33683 Use stable tor module instead of unstable which we had to use because stable didn't support v3 onion services (Jonas Nick) b2fb83c910258d98cc20d76b9e19518f85ac6e4a Use our own bitcoind module instead of nixpkgs' (Jonas Nick) 26d2e11a6b4913729ad7a4088c36b5c62f5c7ef7 Update to NixOS 19.09 (Jonas Nick) 1d022f201725ba2e2aebe74a63e0292f315f73d1 Remove PyQt dependency from liquid-swap tool because it doesn't work with NixOs 19.09 and we don't need it anyway (Jonas Nick) Pull request description: ACKs for top commit: erikarvstedt: Tested ACK 664c5c67628374da5cc615e49ae42ae3931c63fd Tree-SHA512: eecbb15011ce8849b8c54788e296109a7f0529286b5a38cd2dd90268cbd03ca396555296ac2018e7e82d88cace18d97ab69201a252b30b3b87db0ae136c410c5
nix-bitcoin
Nix packages and nixos modules for easily installing Bitcoin nodes and higher layer protocols with an emphasis on security. This is a work in progress - don't expect it to be bug free or secure.
The default configuration sets up a Bitcoin Core node and c-lightning. The user can enable spark-wallet in configuration.nix
to make c-lightning accessible with a smartphone using spark-wallet.
A simple webpage shows the lightning nodeid and links to nanopos letting the user receive donations.
It also includes elements-daemon.
Outbound peer-to-peer traffic is forced through Tor, and listening services are bound to onion addresses.
A demo installation is running at http://6tr4dg3f2oa7slotdjp4syvnzzcry2lqqlcvqkfxdavxo6jsuxwqpxad.onion. The following screen cast shows a fresh deployment of a nix-bitcoin node.
The goal is to make it easy to deploy a reasonably secure Bitcoin node with a usable wallet. It should allow managing bitcoin (the currency) effectively and providing public infrastructure. It should be a reproducible and extensible platform for applications building on Bitcoin.
Available modules
By default the configuration.nix
provides:
- bitcoind with outbound connections through Tor and inbound connections through a hidden service. By default loaded with banlist of spy nodes.
- clightning with outbound connections through Tor, not listening
- includes "nodeinfo" script which prints basic info about the node
- adds non-root user "operator" which has access to bitcoin-cli and lightning-cli
In configuration.nix
the user can enable:
- a clightning hidden service
- liquid
- lightning charge
- nanopos
- an index page using nginx to display node information and link to nanopos
- spark-wallet
- electrs
- recurring-donations, a module to repeatedly send lightning payments to recipients specified in the configuration.
- bitcoin-core-hwi.
- You no longer need extra software to connect your hardware wallet to Bitcoin Core. Use Bitcoin Core's own Hardware Wallet Interface with one
configuration.nix
setting.
- You no longer need extra software to connect your hardware wallet to Bitcoin Core. Use Bitcoin Core's own Hardware Wallet Interface with one
The data directories of the services can be found in /var/lib
on the deployed machines.
Installation
The easiest way is to run nix-shell
(on a Linux machine) in the nix-bitcoin directory and then create a NixOps deployment with the provided network.nix
in the network
directory.
Fix the FIXMEs in configuration.nix and deploy with nixops in nix-shell.
See install.md for a detailed tutorial.
Security
- Simplicity: Only services you select in
configuration.nix
and their dependencies are installed, packages and dependencies are pinned, most packages are built from the nixos stable channel, with a few exceptions that are built from the nixpkgs unstable channel, builds happen in a sandboxed environment, code is continiously reviewed and refined. - Integrity: Nix package manager, NixOS and packages can be built from source to reduce reliance on binary caches, nix-bitcoin merge commits are signed, all commits are approved by multiple nix-bitcoin developers, upstream packages are cryptographically verified where possible, we use this software ourselves.
- Principle of Least Privilege: Services operate with least privileges; they each have their own user and are restricted further with systemd options, there's a non-root user operator to interact with the various services.
- Defense-in-depth: nix-bitcoin is built with a hardened kernel by default, services are confined through discretionary access control, Linux namespaces, and seccomp-bpf with continuous improvements.
Note that nix-bitcoin is still experimental. Also, by design if the machine you're deploying from is insecure, there is nothing nix-bitcoin can do to protect itself.
Hardware requirements
- Disk space: 300 GB (235GB for Bitcoin blockchain + some room)
- Bitcoin Core pruning is not supported at the moment because it's not supported by c-lightning. It's possible to use pruning but you need to know what you're doing.
- RAM: 2GB of memory. ECC memory is better. Additionally, it's recommended to use DDR4 memory with targeted row refresh (TRR) enabled (https://rambleed.com/).
Tested hardware includes pcengine's apu2c4, GB-BACE-3150, GB-BACE-3160. Some hardware (including Intel NUCs) may not be compatible with the hardened kernel turned on by default (see https://github.com/fort-nix/nix-bitcoin/issues/39#issuecomment-517366093 for a workaround).
Usage
For usage instructions, such as how to connect to spark-wallet, electrs and the ssh Tor Hidden Service, see usage.md.
Troubleshooting
If you are having problems with nix-bitcoin check the FAQ or submit an issue.
There's also a #nix-bitcoin
IRC channel on freenode.
We are always happy to help.