Posts Tagged ‘Raspberry Pi 2’

DIY Ethereum Raspberry Pi 2 Cryptocurrency Node

18, Jan 2016

raspnode

Raspnode is a project created to help people get Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum nodes, wallets, and related cryptocurrency software on their Raspberry Pi 2 micro computers. Raspnode was launched last year as a Kickstarter project, but now the project’s website also contains detailed guides on how to run a full node for Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum. Since Bitcoin and Litecoin are already “old news” you might be more interested in how to setup a RPi 2 system with a full Ethereum node using the Go Ethereum client (geth) or Python Ethereum client (PyEthApp). The guides are comprehensive and detailed enough, so that they should be easy to understand and be followed by not so advanced users, so you might want to give them a go if you have an unused Raspberry Pi 2 lying around.

– The guide for the Go Ethereum client for running a full Ethereum node on RPi 2…
– The guide for the Python Ethereum client for running a full Ethereum node on RPi 2…

New More Powerful Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Now Available

4, Feb 2015

new-raspberry-pi-2-model-b

A little while ago we have discussed how you can build a low power dedicated Bitcoin or Litecoin node using Raspberry Pi. This however has raised some concerns due to the limited resources and processing power as well as the use of an SD flash card for storage of the big blockchain. Also the RPi has been used quite a lot with various ASIC miners to make them independent from a computer and allow them to run with only a direct Internet connection with the mining software installed on the Raspberry Pi board. The good news is that there is now a new faster and more powerful Raspberry Pi 2 Model B available for the same affordable price (about $35 USD) that will handle the load associated with running a crypto currency node on it than on the previous RPi. The new Raspberry Pi 2 Model B features a faster 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU that is supposed to provide up to about 6x the performance of the previous model, 1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM or essentially 2x the memory of the old model and offer full backwards compatibility with with Raspberry Pi 1.

The only drawback that still remains is that the new Raspberry Pi 2 Model B still relies on SD flash card as a storage option and in the case for use as a dedicated crypto currency node this could turn out to be a problem on the long run. The blockchain of Bitcoin is already over 30 GB in size and will continue to grow, so you need larger storage and a more reliable one. If you are looking for similar to Raspberry Pi solution with better storage options that would allow you to use a HDD or even better an SSD drive, then you might want to check out the very similar projects Banana Pi and Banana Pro that feature a SATA port for storage connection. These are dual-core solutions with 1 GB of RAM, so faster than the now older first RPi, but probably not as powerful as the new model. Of course there are also many other alternatives to Raspberry Pi, including more powerful ones in terms of performance and with additional extra features. The RPi however is still one of the best solutions in terms of price/performance/features ratio and that is really important when talking about using it for projects such as running a dedicated crypto currency node for example.

– For more details about the new more powerful Raspberry Pi 2 Model B that is already available…


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