A Bitcoin node is a pivotal piece of the Bitcoin (BTC) protocol. For dangerous actors, attacking nodes and bringing them offline is a sound technique to undermine the community’s resilience. For one British Bitcoiner, such an assault passed off, because the actions of his feline buddy rendered his Bitcoin node “unreachable.”
Bodl_hodler (who needs to stay nameless) informed Cointelegraph that he “started running Raspberry Pi as Umbrel node January 2021,” as he wished to contribute to the general decentralization of the Bitcoin community.
Below is an image of node in query earlier than the assault. Notice the air vents on the node —a vital aspect of the saga.
Bodl’s Bitcoin node. Source: @Bodl_Hodl
The node ran easily since connection, confirming Bitcoin blocks on common each 10 minutes as per the issue adjustment. However, in late May 2022, when the price started to tumble beneath $30,000, Bodl “Went to log into the node for the first time in a while and it couldn’t be found on the network.”
“So I pulled it out from behind the sofa only to discover it was covered with a crusty layer of baked on cat sick.”
To his horror, Bodl found that his giant black cat, Pablo, had vomited on the Bitcoin node. The “dirty protest” had affected the node’s capability to hook up with the web and run. Bodl explains, “The vomit got through the vent slots and took the node offline.”
Pablo the Bitcoin node attacker and cat. Source: Bodl
Indeed, if a Bitcoin node goes offline, it now not contributes to the safety of the community, probably jeopardizing the Bitcoin protocol. Bodl jokes that “Maybe he [Pablo] mistakenly thought it was running a dog-themed shitcoin,” and “couldn’t stomach the volatility.” Bodl is a Bitcoin maximalist who has no time for the likes of Dogecoin (DOGE).
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Fortunately, it’s also very straightforward to show the node again on and to catch on the lacking blocks. Bodl stated he “removed the power, plugged it back in again, luckily it powered on fine and took a few minutes to re-sync to add all the blocks that it had missed.”
The node was instantly introduced again to life, confirming transactions and securing the community. “Tick tock, next block,” has turn into a preferred catchphrase amongst node runners because of the regularity of the Bitcoin blocks.
Incidentally, working a BTC node is more and more straightforward and permits Bitcoin customers to simply confirm their transactions. Bitcoin hobbyists can now run Lightning nodes whereas some hope to earn passive revenue alongside the way in which. As for Pablo, he now has the corporate of a brand new kitten referred to as Lottie who has lately joined the Bodl household.
