Bitcoinrouter
A high powered plug-and-play router built for the modern Internet user. The router provides bitcoin and lightning fullnode, VPN and Tor so that your private data stays secure inside your home. The full node allows you to broadcast your bitcoin payments and transactions, host your own lightning channels and keep everything behind Tor protecting your privacy.
We have chosen to build on top of the Turris Mox, which is an open source router from the Czech Republic. It has a modular design with each module connecting via PCI. This makes it a very extensible platform. For more info see here: https://www.turris.cz/en/mox/overview/
We think it's important to give the wider public access to Bitcoin's most important features: financial sovereignty and privacy. But we also see Bitcoin as part of a bigger picture rather than at the centre. This is why devices like the Mox should make it easy for people to use - To route all their traffic via a VPN provider that they trust, or Tor over VPN for Internet traffic that may be more sensitive; A router that supports multiple devices in the home and gives people viable alternatives to cloud storage.
Specifications of the hardware used:
- Turris Mox A
- Marvell Armada 3720 1 GHz dual core
- 1024 MB RAM
- GWAN/GLAN
- 1× USB 3.0,
- 1× microSD slot
- 1TB SSD Ext. via USB
Challenges
One of the main challenges with running on the Mox A out of the box is that the Marvell Armada 3720 processor is designed to be used on these kinds of low powered devices that are always on. Syncing the Bitcoin blockchain is processor intensive and can lead to stability issues. We are also testing with a previously sync'd chain.
Our longer term solution is to come up with our own Mox module which could have its own processor. We would love to get feedback on security issues.
We would also prefer users to keep their private keys on hardware wallets. The purpose of the router is to host blockchain data for broadcasting both in and out of the home. There will be implications for hot walleting with LN and also coin mixing but we think these challenges will make for fruitful exploration in the future.
We are concerned that hosting blockchain data so close to the router could make it an attractive target for hackers. One solution would be to create our own PCB with a dedicated CPU for all blockchain data and tasks. We would welcome help from anyone with experience with this kind of hardware, as well as anyone with experience in WRT.
Participate
Join our Mattermost: http://router.bitcoin-node.org/mattermost
