|
|
|
|
Reduce Traffic
|
|
|
|
|
==============
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some node operators need to deal with bandwith caps imposed by their ISPs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By default, bitcoin-core allows up to 125 connections to different peers, 8 of
|
|
|
|
|
which are outbound. You can therefore, have at most 117 inbound connections.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The default settings can result in relatively significant traffic consumption.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ways to reduce traffic:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## 1. Use `-maxuploadtarget=<MiB per day>`
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A major component of the traffic is caused by serving historic blocks to other nodes
|
|
|
|
|
during the initial blocks download phase (syncing up a new node).
|
|
|
|
|
This option can be specified in MiB per day and is turned off by default.
|
|
|
|
|
This is *not* a hard limit; only a threshold to minimize the outbound
|
|
|
|
|
traffic. When the limit is about to be reached, the uploaded data is cut by no
|
|
|
|
|
longer serving historic blocks (blocks older than one week).
|
|
|
|
|
Keep in mind that new nodes require other nodes that are willing to serve
|
|
|
|
|
historic blocks. **The recommended minimum is 144 blocks per day (max. 144MB
|
|
|
|
|
per day)**
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## 2. Disable "listening" (`-listen=0`)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Disabling listening will result in fewer nodes connected (remember the maximum of 8
|
|
|
|
|
outbound peers). Fewer nodes will result in less traffic usage as you are relaying
|
|
|
|
|
blocks and transactions to fewer nodes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## 3. Reduce maximum connections (`-maxconnections=<num>`)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reducing the maximum connected nodes to a miniumum could be desirable if traffic
|
|
|
|
|
limits are tiny. Keep in mind that bitcoin's trustless model works best if you are
|
|
|
|
|
connected to a handful of nodes.
|
