VPS for Bitcoin and Monero nodes

The first decision for a Bitcoin node is pruning. It changes your storage requirement by two orders of magnitude.

Pruned node (validates everything, keeps little)

A pruned node downloads and verifies the entire chain during initial block download (IBD), then discards old block data once validated. You keep the full UTXO set (chainstate, ~10-12 GB) plus a small rolling window of recent blocks. Set prune=550 in bitcoin.conf for the 550 MB minimum, or prune=50000 for a roomier ~50 GB window. A pruned node is a first-class validator: it checks every signature and every block. It just can't serve historical blocks to peers or rescan old wallet transactions.

# ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf — pruned
prune=50000
dbcache=4096
maxconnections=40
listen=1

Total footprint: roughly 60-80 GB including the OS. This fits the S2 plan (320 GB NVMe) with enormous headroom, and even fits the S1 if you keep the prune window tight. The 16 GB of RAM on S2 lets you set a large dbcache, which cuts IBD from days to under a day on NVMe Gen5.

Archival (full, unpruned) node

An unpruned node keeps every block ever mined — currently ~700 GB and growing roughly 80 GB per year. You need this if you run a block explorer, an Electrum server (electrs/Fulcrum), or any service that rescans history. Plan for storage you won't outgrow in 18 months:

• S3 plan — 8 vCPU / 32 GB / 640 GB NVMe, from $30/mo. Good for an archival node alone, tight if you add electrs.
• R1 dedicated — Ryzen 9 7950X, 64 GB ECC, 2x2TB NVMe, from $89/mo. The correct choice for archival + electrs + Fulcrum + a Lightning node on one box, with RAID-1 redundancy.

See the full dedicated lineup if you intend to run an Electrum back end that thousands of wallets connect to.

Initial block download moves the entire chain over the wire: roughly 700 GB inbound for an archival node, somewhat less for a pruned one (you still download everything, you just don't keep it). On a metered or capped host, IBD alone can blow your monthly allowance before the node is even synced.

NoKycVPS ships network up to 10 Gbps unmetered on every plan. IBD is bounded by CPU and disk, not by a bandwidth meter or an overage invoice. In practice IBD on an NVMe Gen5 S2 with dbcache=4096 completes in well under a day.

Steady-state relay is modest. A listening node with maxconnections=40 uploads a few GB per day relaying blocks and transactions to peers — more if you raise the connection count to support the network. There is no traffic cap to watch and no per-GB charge, so you can run a generous, well-connected node without rationing peers. If you want to cap upload anyway, maxuploadtarget=5000 (5 GB/day) in bitcoin.conf throttles historical-block serving while still relaying new blocks.

One operational note: pick the region closest to your other infrastructure to shave RPC latency. We run identical hardware in Reykjavik, Zurich, Paris, and Bucharest, so you choose on jurisdiction and latency, not on a hardware tradeoff.

A Monero full node runs monerod. Pruned blockchain data is around 100 GB; an unpruned node is roughly 230 GB and climbing. Either fits the S2 plan comfortably. monerod is lighter on RAM than bitcoind, so even the S1 (4 GB) can run a pruned monerod for personal wallet use, though S2 is the sane default if you'll also expose RPC.

Restricted RPC — never expose the full RPC

monerod has two RPC modes. The unrestricted RPC (port 18081) exposes administrative and potentially privacy-leaking calls — bind it to localhost only. Expose the restricted RPC (port 18089) when you want wallets to connect remotely. It serves only the calls a wallet needs.

# /etc/monerod.conf
data-dir=/var/lib/monero
prune-blockchain=1
rpc-restricted-bind-ip=0.0.0.0
rpc-restricted-bind-port=18089
no-igd=1
out-peers=32
in-peers=64
limit-rate-up=2048
limit-rate-down=8192

Tor hidden service (optional but recommended)

Run monerod behind a Tor onion service so wallets reach it without leaking the server IP, and so you contribute to the privacy network. Install tor, add a HiddenServiceDir mapping port 18089 to the onion address, then point your wallet at your-onion.onion:18089 over Tor. NoKycVPS policy explicitly permits Tor relays, exits, and hidden services — running monerod as an onion service is squarely allowed. See our Tor relay guide for the daemon setup.

Funding the server itself with Monero closes the loop: the node that validates your XMR transactions is paid for in XMR, with no card and no name in between.

A node's value is its independence. The moment your validating infrastructure is tied to your legal identity through a hosting account, that independence is partly fictional — the host knows who you are, what you're running, and can be leaned on to tell someone else.

• No identity link. Email plus password is the entire credential. No ID, no phone, no documents, no card. Your Bitcoin or Monero node is not associated with a government identity in any database we hold.
• Crypto-only billing. You fund a balance with Monero or nine other coins; deploys debit the balance. XMR credits in about 30 seconds. There is no payment processor sitting between you and your node.
• Offshore operating entity. The operator is incorporated in Saint Kitts and Nevis. We act only on a binding judicial order from a court with jurisdiction over that entity, served properly — and we notify you first. A monthly warrant canary states whether that has happened.
• Explicit policy permission. Crypto nodes (BTC/XMR), validators, and RPC endpoints are on the allowed list, not in a gray area. The only zero-tolerance line is CSAM; the only operational bar is network abuse (outbound spam, mass scanning, amplification). Running a node is none of those.

For the legal reasoning behind each datacenter — Iceland's IMMI press-freedom framework and absence of mandatory data retention, Switzerland's constitutional privacy and Art. 271 restriction on assisting foreign authorities — see the offshore hosting overview.

Match the plan to the chain and the role:

• Monero full node (pruned), personal wallet back end — S2, from $15/mo. 320 GB is overkill for ~100 GB of pruned data, which gives you years of headroom. Add Tor and you're done.
• Bitcoin pruned node, sovereign validation — S2, from $15/mo. 16 GB RAM for a fat dbcache makes IBD fast; 320 GB holds a generous prune window and the OS comfortably.
• Bitcoin archival node — S3, from $30/mo (640 GB) for the node alone, or step up if you'll co-locate other services.
• Bitcoin archival + electrs/Fulcrum + Lightning — R1 dedicated, from $89/mo. Ryzen 9 7950X, 64 GB ECC, 2x2TB NVMe in RAID-1. This is the box for a full self-hosted Bitcoin stack that other people's wallets depend on.

Every plan deploys in about 47 seconds (Q1 2026 median) on a 99.97% uptime SLA. Commit longer and pay less: 12-month billing is 50% off, 6-month 35%, 3-month 25% — a one-shot per cycle with no auto-renew. A node is a long-lived service, so the annual cycle usually wins. Pick a jurisdiction, choose your OS (Debian 13 is the no-fuss default for both daemons), fund with Monero, and your node is syncing inside a minute.