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Let A be a service that depends on another service B. When A can gracefully handle failures and restarts of B, use ``` wants = [ "B.service" ]; after = [ "B.service" ]; ``` instead of ``` requires = [ "B.service" ]; after = [ "B.service" ]; ``` in the definition of A. This way, A keeps running when B is stopped or restarted after a failure. With `requires`, A is instead stopped when B is stopped or restarted due to a failure. This brings two benefits: 1. Improved uptime Examples: - RTL keeps running when one lightning node has failed - btcpayserver keeps running and accepting on-chain payments when the lightning node has crashed 2. Avoids a systemd bug where depending units (`A.service` in the above example) are not restarted when their dependency fails (issue github/systemd#18856, no full link to avoid spamming the issue). In real world nix-bitcoin deployments, this issue was only likely to appear when clightning failed during activation, causing depending units (like `RTL`) to stop and not be restarted. All services depending on `clightning` have now been changed to use `wants`, thereby avoiding the bug. Services `electrs` and `lightning-loop` fail when their respective dependencies stop, so these services have not been changed. I also haven't changed services `joinmarket` and `joinmarket-yieldgenerator`. Further manual testing is needed to determine if they can be switched to `wants`. |
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| dev | ||
| docs | ||
| examples | ||
| helper | ||
| modules | ||
| pkgs | ||
| test | ||
| .cirrus.yml | ||
| default.nix | ||
| flake.lock | ||
| flake.nix | ||
| LICENSE | ||
| overlay.nix | ||
| README.md | ||
| SECURITY.md | ||
| shell.nix | ||
nix-bitcoin is a collection of Nix packages and NixOS modules for easily installing full-featured Bitcoin nodes with an emphasis on security.
Overview
nix-bitcoin can be used for personal or merchant wallets, public infrastructure or for Bitcoin application backends. In all cases, the aim is to provide security and privacy by default. However, while nix-bitcoin is used in production today, it is still considered experimental.
nix-bitcoin nodes can be deployed on dedicated hardware, virtual machines or containers. The Nix packages and NixOS modules can be used independently and combined freely.
nix-bitcoin is built on top of Nix and NixOS which provide powerful abstractions to keep it highly customizable and maintainable. Testament to this are nix-bitcoin's robust security features and its potent test framework. However, running nix-bitcoin does not require any previous experience with the Nix ecosystem.
Get started
- See the examples for an overview of all features.
- To setup a new node from scratch, see the installation instructions.
- To add nix-bitcoin to an existing NixOS configuration, see importable-configuration.nix and the Flake example.
Docs
Hint: To show a table of contents, click the button (
) in the
top left corner of the documents.
- NixOS options search
- Hardware requirements
- Installation
- Configuration and maintenance
- Using services
- FAQ
Features
A configuration preset for setting up a secure node
- All applications use Tor for outbound connections and support accepting inbound connections via onion services.
NixOS modules (src)
- Application services
- bitcoind
- clightning with support for announcing an onion service
and database replication.
Available plugins:- clboss: automated C-Lightning Node Manager
- currencyrate: currency converter
- monitor: helps you analyze the health of your peers and channels
- rebalance: keeps your channels balanced
- trustedcoin (experimental): replaces bitcoind with trusted public explorers
- zmq: publishes notifications via ZeroMQ to configured endpoints
- lnd with support for announcing an onion service and static channel backups
- Lightning Loop
- Lightning Pool
- charge-lnd: policy-based channel fee manager
- lndconnect: connect your wallet to lnd or clightning via WireGuard or Tor
- Ride The Lightning: web interface for
lndandclightning - mempool: Bitcoin visualizer, explorer, and API service
- electrs: Electrum server
- fulcrum: Electrum server (see the module for a comparison with electrs)
- btcpayserver
- liquid: federated sidechain
- JoinMarket
- bitcoin-core-hwi
- Helper
- netns-isolation: isolates applications on the network-level via network namespaces
- nodeinfo: script which prints info about the node's services
- backups: duplicity backups of all your node's important files
- operator: configures a non-root user who has access to client tools (e.g.
bitcoin-cli,lightning-cli)
Security
See SECURITY.md for the security policy and how to report a vulnerability.
nix-bitcoin aims to achieve a high degree of security by building on the following principles:
- Simplicity: Only services enabled in
configuration.nixand their dependencies are installed, support for doas (sudo alternative), code is continuously reviewed and refined. - Integrity: The Nix package manager guarantees that all dependencies are exactly specified, 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 features, RPC whitelisting and netns-isolation. There's a non-root user operator to interact with the various services.
- Defense-in-depth: nix-bitcoin supports a hardened kernel, services are confined through discretionary access control, Linux namespaces, dbus firewall and seccomp-bpf with continuous improvements.
Note that if the machine you're deploying from is insecure, there is nothing nix-bitcoin can do to protect itself.
Security fund
The nix-bitcoin security fund is a 2 of 3 bitcoin multisig address open for donations, used to reward
security researchers who discover vulnerabilities in nix-bitcoin or its upstream dependencies.
See Security Fund for details.
Developing
See dev/README.
Troubleshooting
If you are having problems with nix-bitcoin check the FAQ or submit an issue.
There's also a Matrix room at #general:nixbitcoin.org.
We are always happy to help.