How to store full blockchain on server and run Bitcoin Core as client only?

Question

How to store full blockchain on server and run Bitcoin Core as client only?

I want to run Core wallets on 2 or 3 or even more computers on my local network. The best way to store the full blockchain is to put it on one server on my local network.

I want the Core client to read only the blockchain data and listen for changes from the server but not write anything to the server, like a read-only directory. The server should be the only one allowed to write updates to the blockchain data.

The Core client should write private data to %AppData%\Bitcoin as usual but segregate the blockchain data onto the server.

How do I do this?

Answer 1

It is possible to configure your server/clients as follows, although it is not exactly what you have described. I presume that you still want each client to have its own separate wallet.

1. On your server, make a full installation of Bitcoin Core.
   1. In the config file set bind=<internal network IP>.
   2. Set any other options, for example to enable incoming peers from the internet.
   3. Restart server node for config to take effect.
2. On each client make a full installation of Bitcoin Core.
   1. In your config file set connect=<server IP>.
   2. In your config file set prune=<n> where n is greater than 550MiB. This will limit storage requirements.
   3. Set any other options.
   4. Restart client node for config to take effect.

Using connect= disables automatic connections so, your nodes will only connect to the server.

Answer 2

This is not supported.

What is supported:

• Run Bitcoin Core in pruning mode (which means it still has a local blockchain, but only recent blocks are kept.
• Run lightweight software as client, and make it only connect to your (clearly trusted) server. This way you get a fully validated chain, without the resource usage.

Answer 3

You could try Bitcore instead. It contains a fork of the reference bitcoin implementation with added support for indexing of data, and includes an API for running it on a server. You can then use the API from your local computers or access the built-in blockchain explorer.