Own Bitcoin full node, pool, cloud? Yes, with Umbrel!

Many approaches and solutions often lead to the same goal – Umbrel does it particularly elegantly, in my opinion. A truly extremely lean and fast operating system with a truly excellent and comprehensive app center. Never before has it been so easy – and above all so visually appealing – to set up your own Bitcoin full node, your own BTC mining pool, lightning, and various tools related to the Bitcoin ecosystem.

But UmbrelOS is much more than that; since the last release, it can even be operated as your own data cloud, fully integrated into the operating system. Many other applications can be found in the well-maintained app center – leaving nothing to be desired.

I did my first installation on my very powerful DAS with a 10 GbE network connection via a VM. Even back then, I was simply thrilled by the operating system – but unfortunately, a VM is still a VM, so node synchronization takes over 8 days. And I didn't want to allocate unnecessary additional resources to the VM in the DAS because the DAS performs various other tasks and VMs that are relevant to my work.

So I had an idea while I was still developing the OC'axe – to test a RPi5, which also runs on 5v and therefore works perfectly with the Bitaxe ecosystem. So I quickly put together an airless setup with a 2 TB NVME and installed Umbrel on it. This was a really extreme boost compared to the VM – so I completely switched my internal Bitaxe/NerdQaxe+ swarm infrastructure to my own node and public pool.

Installing it on the Raspberry Pi 5 was really easy, and the excellent documentation and step-by-step guides were extremely helpful: Install umbrelOS on a Raspberry Pi 5

This setup worked for me for quite some time until Umbrel version 1.4 was released, which included a file management and sharing system – basically your own cloud within your network. I have been running several Nexcloud instances for years and, in addition to my DAS, I also have two additional NAS devices that are directly connected to the clients. But I couldn't shake the idea of testing and using the new functionality more intensively. That's what happened, and slowly but surely, a usage process crept in – whether it was saving something temporarily, moving the download folder to the RPi 5, or quickly distributing data across the network. The feature is actually very handy, and I found myself using it all the time.

We have all certainly set up a fallback mining pool in the Bitaxe/NerdQaxe ecosystem, which works perfectly, and AxeOS controls this process excellently.

However, over time, I became bothered by the fact that, although a fallback mining pool is a practical thing, you are putting your BTC address in the hands of strangers, and if you do find a block, it doesn't exactly fall under the terms “self-management” and “anonymity.” The external pools compulsively store a lot of data, be it the IP address in the logs, which can be used to identify the country, provider data, and many other traces that you leave behind. Apart from the fact that some pools have a KYC process or charge fees – all valid points that I didn't really like.

So I thought about some alternatives:

1. Use the VM in DAS as a fallback

Although this worked really well and I had a synchronized node after 8 days, I wasn't entirely happy with it. What if the VM breaks down, despite daily snapshots? The Umbrel OS is quick to set up, but then you're faced with the challenge of long node synchronization again. The performance on the VM isn't particularly good, even if it's sufficient for running a public pool instance.

2. Rent a small VM from a hosting provider

For very little money, you can rent a VM and set it up however you like. Either completely from scratch or a managed hosting VM – which is automatically provided with important security updates by the provider.
 

3. Buy a second RPi 5; or Umbrel Home

As is so often the case, all three options have advantages and disadvantages. Of course, I also considered buying Umbrel Home right away, and I was really close to doing so – but one thing stopped me. I'll talk more about that later.

After giving it a lot of thought, however, I decided that it would be a good idea to set up an old PC as a home server. I did just that – but quickly realized that it requires a lot of maintenance, the system isn't really silent, and I would have to invest more money to make it quiet/silent. And then there's the power consumption, which really shouldn't be underestimated—even if you run everything at minimum settings, 100-150W is the norm.

So I looked at the specifications for Umrel Home and was almost convinced by the product. But then there's the 1.4 update with the great integrated cloud that I've grown to love, and my poor RPi 5 had to handle this task in addition to node operation and BTC public pools.

But now comes a BUT, or rather two. In my opinion, due to the 1.4 update and the integrated cloud features, a 1 GbE port is really no longer up to date. I already noticed this with the RPi 5. Anyone who works with large amounts of data internally on a network and has already enjoyed the benefits of 10 GbE will know exactly how inadequate and slow 1 GbE feels. It would really be appropriate for Umbrel Home to be updated here; 1 GbE port is unfortunately so 1990 – especially when you have direct cloud functionality integrated into the operating system.

The second point would be the 2 TB NVME – yes, it is sufficient for one node, probably even for the next five years. But Umbrel is so much more and has so many incredibly practical apps/applications that you simply have to have. 2 TB is quickly used up, and you're faced with buying a new 4 TB NVME (if you can upgrade it with Umbrel Home – I'll just say yes for now). From this perspective, the price is unfortunately no longer so attractive – especially because of the 1 GbE port and a new 4 TB NVME.

So I would need something similar to an RPi 5 and Umbrel Home – a perfect mix, taking into account the three options mentioned above with the criteria.

It should be economical, fanless and therefore silent, visually simple and appealing, as small as possible/necessary – in other words, a mini PC (NUC). I haven't followed the topic closely, but there is simply a huge selection of these little things. And some of them are actually not really cheap – especially if you're looking for at least a 2.5 GbE port and 4 TB NVME, you quickly end up paying between EUR 700 and EUR 1,000. For a second fallback ming pool instance, or probably the main instance (RPi 5 would then be a backup), it was just too expensive for me. I could have rented a VM from a hosting provider, but the maintenance was a real pain for me.

After extensive research, I finally found a candidate that is affordable, fast, energy-efficient, silent, and visually appealing. The MeLE QuieterDL has two 2.5 GbE ports, a powerful and energy-efficient Intel Alder Lake N100 processor, 16 GB RAM, and 512 GB SSD.

But there is an even cheaper option: the MeLE Quieter4C model only has 1 GbE port – if the cloud function in the internal network is not that important to you. It is actually a little smaller and more compact and probably even more energy-efficient. However, this model can overheat because the heat is transferred to the outer casing via contact surfaces, and both the contact surfaces and the casing are significantly smaller.

Here, too, installing Umbrel was really easy, and the documentation is excellent: Install umbrelOS on x86 systems

If you don't have a node yet, or if you want to set up a fallback, I would suggest two options. Either a Raspberry Pi 5 or a NUC.

The advantage of the Raspberry Pi 5 is that this setup is quite inexpensive, small, and powerful. It is perfectly adequate for your own public pool. The Raspberry Pi 5 can possibly be expanded with additional apps under Umbrel, but you should really pay attention to performance here – you want a mining pool that is as fast as possible.

Completely free of restrictions is a NUC, which is slightly more expensive but significantly more powerful and future-proof. Here, you can not only operate a mining pool, but also continue to utilize the system to its full capacity without any concerns.

A combination of both would of course be perfect, with a NUC as the main server instance and the Raspberry Pi 5 as a fallback instance.

Please note that you will need an SD card to install UmbrelOS on the Raspberry Pi 5. Otherwise, the setup mentioned above would be a minimal but inexpensive and perfectly adequate option. The Lexar NVMe is perfect for the Raspberry Pi 5, and with a fully synchronized node, I wouldn't go below 2 TB. Then you'll have peace of mind and plenty of space for many years to come, and you can just let your setup run.

The great thing about MeLE is that you don't need the latest and most expensive NVMe – Gen4 is perfectly adequate. The speed is higher than the model mentioned above for the Raspberry Pi 5. But of course, you can also use this NVMe with the Raspberry Pi 5 if you need more storage space. However, I would look for a different model that is a little cheaper, because the Raspberry Pi 5 cannot fully utilize this NVMe from Crucial.

In my opinion, MeLE Quieter4C isn't really worth it because with a 2 TB NVMe, you should go straight for Umbrel Home. It's even cheaper and you don't have to do any additional tinkering. However, if you opt for 4 TB NVMe, it might make sense to buy the NUC and upgrade it.

Installing UmbrelOS was really easy, both on the NUC and on the Raspberry Pi 5. The difference in performance is noticeable, with the NUC being significantly faster.

The first synchronization of the full node took the Raspberry Pi 5 a good 2.5 days. The NUC completed the synchronization after just 25 hours. Overall, UmbrelOS feels significantly more powerful on a NUC.

In my opinion, I have created a very good fallback solution for a pool. The NUC is my main server, and the Raspberry Pi 5 simply waits in case something goes wrong with the NUC.

The easiest way is to assign a fixed IP to both – this way, you can easily configure a main and fallback pool in AxeOS, and testing is much faster.