Set Up Your System

The soil. Bitcoin Core, your Lightning node, the mint, and Orchard all run on this one machine, so it is the first thing to get right. Liveness is critical to both the lightning node and the mint. This makes the host itself critical to your service model.

Run it on a machine you control with reliable hardware — a home server or a hosted VPS. Both work, and the rest of this guide is the same either way; the section below lays out the trade-off.

What this step covers

• A host you control with room for the whole stack: a 2 TB+ SSD for a full Bitcoin node and the data that grows with it, 4 GB+ RAM, and a connection that stays online.
• A supported Linux OS. The stack targets Ubuntu Server LTS. Install it and keep it patched.
• Hardened remote access: key-only SSH, a non-root admin user with sudo, and the SSH port reachable only to you.
• Security and privacy hardening: a default-deny firewall that opens only the ports each service needs, plus the network and privacy measures that keep the host locked down.
• A backup plan for keys and configuration, in place before anything holds value.

Home server or VPS?

Both work, and the rest of this guide is the same either way. The choice comes down to one trade-off: a home server maximizes sovereignty and privacy, while a VPS maximizes uptime and reachability. For a mint — public-facing infrastructure that holds value — we lean toward the home server, but a VPS is a reasonable lighter-touch start.

	Home server	Hosted VPS
Control	Hardware is physically yours	The provider owns the host
Key & data privacy	Keys never leave your hardware	The provider can access disk and RAM
Uptime	Rests on your power and home internet	Datacenter-grade, often with an SLA
Public reachability	More manual configuration and networking	Static public IP off the shelf
Bandwidth	Capped by residential upload	High and symmetric
Cost	One-time hardware	Recurring monthly fee
Setup	You install the OS yourself (step 1.2)	Arrives with Linux and SSH ready
Best when	Sovereignty and privacy come first	You want reliable uptime without running hardware

Which should I pick?

Pick a home server for full sovereignty, if you want to own the hardware, and can own the uptime. Pick a VPS for dependable uptime and a public IP, trusting the provider with the machine your keys run on.

Running at home?

Uptime is on you, so design for it. Put the machine on a UPS so a power blip cannot corrupt your drives or knock your services offline, and run it on wired ethernet instead of Wi-Fi for a stable, always-on connection.

Follow MiniBolt’s System guide

We do not reproduce these steps. MiniBolt’s System section is the guide we recommend (see the guides we build on for why). Open it and work through 1.1–1.6 — it applies almost as written. The tips below cover the only differences: one for everyone, plus a few if you’re on a VPS.

Open MiniBolt: System The step-by-step system setup we recommend. Work through 1.1–1.6, then come back here for Bitcoin.

General guide tips

Follow MiniBolt’s steps as written. The one addition: in 1.1 Preparations, when you write down your passwords, add an Orchard setup key to the list.

VPS guide tips

A VPS arrives as a running Linux box with SSH already enabled, so a few steps shift:

• Skip 1.2 Operating system. Your provider already installed Linux.
• 1.3 Remote access: ssh at the public IP your provider gives you as there is no machine to find on your local network.
• 1.4 Configuration: its first task, “Add the admin user,” creates the admin account the rest of the guide runs as — MiniBolt builds it from the throwaway temp user made during the OS install. You skipped that install, so run those same steps from the root or ubuntu login your provider gave you. That login stands in for temp: retire it once admin works (delete the spare ubuntu user, or disable root SSH).