dkdaniz/docker-bitcoin

Docker image for a Bitcoin full node, built from official source releases

docker-bitcoin

Docker setup to run a full node for Bitcoin

Reasons to use this image:

• other images rely upon an unofficial Ubuntu PPA, rather than the original source code
• no fuss configuration:
  • bitcoin.conf file starts with a reasonaable configuration
  • docker-compose.yml sets up a volume to persist the blockchain data and exposes the ports
  • make commands take care of various fiddly things

Quickstart guide

• install Docker: Mac | Ubuntu
• clone the repo
• build (or pull) the Docker image:
  • build
    • make build
    • only needs to be done the first time or when docker-related files change
  • pull
    • make pull
    • building the image can take a while (~15 minutes for me), so this is useful for checking out the image before building it yourself
    • note the image gets re-tagged so that it can be used with the make commands
• start the container:
  • make up
  • ctrl-c will detach you from the logging output; container will still be running in the background
  • make logs will re-attach you to logging
• stop the container:
  • make down
• check everything works:
  • start the containers if they aren't running (make up)
  • make status (should show local blockchain info)
  • make bash (will drop you in a bash shell inside the bitcoind container)
  • bitcoin-cli getbestblockhash (should return a hash)
  • bitcoin-cli help (shows more commands)
• make help will show more make commands

A bit of fun

Let's take a look inside the very first block in the Bitcoin blockchain, the genesis block.

$ bitcoin-cli getblockhash 0
000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f

$ bitcoin-cli getblock 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f 2
{
  "hash": "000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f",
  "confirmations": 431615,
  "strippedsize": 285,
  "size": 285,
  "weight": 1140,
  "height": 0,
  "version": 1,
  "versionHex": "00000001",
  "merkleroot": "4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b",
  "tx": [
    {
      "txid": "4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b",
      "hash": "4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b",
      "version": 1,
      "size": 204,
      "vsize": 204,
      "weight": 816,
      "locktime": 0,
      "vin": [
        {
          "coinbase": "04ffff001d0104455468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73",
          "sequence": 4294967295
        }
      ],
      "vout": [
        {
          "value": 50.00000000,
          "n": 0,
          "scriptPubKey": {
            "asm": "04678afdb0fe5548271967f1a67130b7105cd6a828e03909a67962e0ea1f61deb649f6bc3f4cef38c4f35504e51ec112de5c384df7ba0b8d578a4c702b6bf11d5f OP_CHECKSIG",
            "hex": "4104678afdb0fe5548271967f1a67130b7105cd6a828e03909a67962e0ea1f61deb649f6bc3f4cef38c4f35504e51ec112de5c384df7ba0b8d578a4c702b6bf11d5fac",
            "reqSigs": 1,
            "type": "pubkey",
            "addresses": [
              "1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa"
            ]
          }
        }
      ],
      "hex": "01000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000ffffffff4d04ffff001d0104455468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73ffffffff0100f2052a01000000434104678afdb0fe5548271967f1a67130b7105cd6a828e03909a67962e0ea1f61deb649f6bc3f4cef38c4f35504e51ec112de5c384df7ba0b8d578a4c702b6bf11d5fac00000000"
    }
  ],
  "time": 1231006505,
  "mediantime": 1231006505,
  "nonce": 2083236893,
  "bits": "1d00ffff",
  "difficulty": 1,
  "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000100010001",
  "nTx": 1,
  "nextblockhash": "00000000839a8e6886ab5951d76f411475428afc90947ee320161bbf18eb6048"
}

$ bitcoin-cli getblock 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f 2 | grep coinbase
          "coinbase": "04ffff001d0104455468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73",

$ python3 -c "print(bytes.fromhex('04ffff001d0104455468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73'))"
b'\x04\xff\xff\x00\x1d\x01\x04EThe Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks'

This is the famous coinbase message left by Satoshi Nakamoto when he created the blockchain. Its meaning is up to interpretation, although it has usually been understood to be a concise way of irrefutably dating the genesis block and at the same time a commentary on the financial system.

References

• Mastering Bitcoin, chapter 3: intro to bitcoind
• ChainQuery: useful web interface to learn about bitcoin-cli