This is an opinion editorial by Anthony Feliciano, a Bitcoin occasion organizer and Bitcoin Magazine contributor.
A few years in the past, I had a difficulty when my energy went out at my residence, and my RaspiBlitz went offline. It was the beginning of a brand new undertaking, i.e., “how do I prevent this from happening again?” I will not go into the technical setup on this article, as I’ve written an article with in-depth directions on how one can do this out for your self.
This is extra of a enjoyable lets get #reckless with a Lightning Node article. I imply, if we are going to name ourselves Bitcoiners and never get #reckless with instruments, purposes, and {hardware}, then what are we doing? The premise right here, I used to be being despatched to California for work. Now, in the event you run an LN node at dwelling, you expertise energy outages, web outages, {hardware} freeze-ups and the rest you may encounter whereas sustaining a node — however you are dwelling, so you understand how to repair the whole lot and get again to regular with minimal down time. What in the event you are on the highway for an prolonged time period and that occurs? Hopefully you’ve got somebody at dwelling that may repair it for you or a minimum of information them. If you do not, are you going to go away your node offline for “x” variety of days? I imply I assume that is being #reckless in a method. What did I do, you ask? Why, I took it on the highway with me in fact. The time period mobile banking has been used for a few many years due to the event of protocols, infrastructure, and {hardware} that make all of it potential. So I believed, what if I may exhibit my Raspiblitz node as cellular banking 2.0?
Now lets get #reckless
I drove over 1,000 miles from Denver, Colorada to El Segundo, California.
I packed the household, grabbed my LN node and we hit the highway. Here is a pic as we left. My automotive was loaded with the household, youngsters, canine and my node. I wanted to discover a adequate spot, the place it would not get manhandled an excessive amount of. I just about stored it beneath the seat the entire time — a superb check to see how lengthy the battery will final on this unit. I had by no means totally examined the battery life earlier than.
This subsequent pic is someplace in Utah. I do not keep in mind the place, but it surely was noon and time for some lunch. My battery was nonetheless alive and the node was synced. I do know I misplaced connection by means of components of the Rocky Mountains however the node synced up as soon as mobile connection was reestablished.
The different picture I’m exhibiting is the RaspiBlitz menu display screen, exhibiting my node is linked and synced. **Note** I solely took one picture of the menu, because it was not wanted to present a number of occasions.
Our subsequent cease could be Las Vegas for the night time. Sometime after we left Utah and acquired to Las Vegas the battery lastly died and my node went offline. I acquired a bit #reckless as a result of I used to be driving and forgot to verify the battery, and let it die. I estimate the battery life to be round eight hours. I did not hold a full time verify on it but it surely served a superb a part of the primary leg of the journey. Once we acquired to Las Vegas I recharged the battery backup and resynced. Once I acquired a adequate cost I took it out for an additional picture.
It simply occurred to be the night time of the 2022 NFL draft in Las Vegas.
“With the first pick of the 2022 NFL draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars select, RaspiBlitz!” *The crowd goes wild!*
The subsequent day we left for California. The battery pack stored the node powered the entire method to the lodge, about 5 hours for us. While California was our dwelling for every week I did not take the node with me whereas on the highway. Sometimes I did, and generally I left it on the lodge. As you may guess the node will solely sync when it receives my mobile phone hotspot connection. So, the times I did not take it with me, I turned it off on the lodge and once I acquired again, powered again on and resynced.
Could I’ve tried to configure the node to join to lodge WiFi? Possibly, if I edited the WiFi file. I might have wanted a display screen to see the assigned IP tackle to join. That’s one draw back of going headless (with no display screen) with no connection to your individual units.
Next up was a photograph op at Surfside Brewery. As you may see I’ve it chilling on the bar with me. Yes completely #reckless. I get it. This could be the identical location a pair days later the place I held one in every of my Cryptobeerkings occasions which I usually do in Denver — however why not take the whole lot cellular, and unfold the phrase of Bitcoin by means of occasions like these, in a completely completely different state and with a bunch new Bitcoiners that I acquired to meet?
The week got here to an finish and we had to make the return journey, which was a reasonably comparable two-day journey. This was the final picture I took from the lodge in St. George, Utah.
To wrap all of it up — it was a profitable #reckless highway journey. We did over 2200 miles with two youngsters, two Siberian Huskies and my LN node. Through all of it my node survived the enterprise there and again. I wager lots of people seeing the images and studying the tales went full-on cringe mode. I get it. That was the purpose of this journey and article. I wished to doc the journey of being #reckless whereas nonetheless exhibiting the talents of Bitcoin, so others do not have to. I wished to present all of the instruments the superior Bitcoin builders have spent years engaged on, really being utilized in real-world use circumstances. We as a neighborhood have moved on from Bitcoin Twitter, customers who cannot code or develop, to having the ability to apply these instruments in real-world conditions and make up excuses to get #reckless and to succeed! This is a testomony to this neighborhood.
That being stated, my setup was not good. I’m certain there are higher circumstances or merchandise that may have made the entire setup higher. Yes — however this is what I had at my disposal on the time. Maybe some {hardware} and/or builders will learn this and provide you with a greater answer, which I actually hope somebody does because it solely advantages us as a neighborhood. If you had been questioning, I used the Zeus app as my cell phone app. I used to be in a position to join to my node by way of a Tor tackle. I even examined funds from it within the days main up to the Cryptobeerkings occasion at Surfside Brewery.
I hope you’re “wowed” and/or impressed to include some enjoyable methods to get #reckless. So, is this cellular banking 2.0? Bitcoin cellular banking? Eh, we are going to work on the terminology later. Enjoy associates. #Reckless.
This is a visitor submit by Anthony Feliciano. Opinions expressed are totally their personal and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
