|
| 1 | +Reduce Traffic |
| 2 | +============== |
| 3 | + |
| 4 | +Some node operators need to deal with bandwidth caps imposed by their ISPs. |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | +By default, bitcoin-core allows up to 125 connections to different peers, 8 of |
| 7 | +which are outbound. You can therefore, have at most 117 inbound connections. |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +The default settings can result in relatively significant traffic consumption. |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +Ways to reduce traffic: |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +## 1. Use `-maxuploadtarget=<MiB per day>` |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +A major component of the traffic is caused by serving historic blocks to other nodes |
| 16 | +during the initial blocks download phase (syncing up a new node). |
| 17 | +This option can be specified in MiB per day and is turned off by default. |
| 18 | +This is *not* a hard limit; only a threshold to minimize the outbound |
| 19 | +traffic. When the limit is about to be reached, the uploaded data is cut by no |
| 20 | +longer serving historic blocks (blocks older than one week). |
| 21 | +Keep in mind that new nodes require other nodes that are willing to serve |
| 22 | +historic blocks. **The recommended minimum is 144 blocks per day (max. 144MB |
| 23 | +per day)** |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +Whitelisted peers will never be disconnected, although their traffic counts for |
| 26 | +calculating the target. |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +## 2. Disable "listening" (`-listen=0`) |
| 29 | + |
| 30 | +Disabling listening will result in fewer nodes connected (remember the maximum of 8 |
| 31 | +outbound peers). Fewer nodes will result in less traffic usage as you are relaying |
| 32 | +blocks and transactions to fewer nodes. |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +## 3. Reduce maximum connections (`-maxconnections=<num>`) |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +Reducing the maximum connected nodes to a minimum could be desirable if traffic |
| 37 | +limits are tiny. Keep in mind that bitcoin's trustless model works best if you are |
| 38 | +connected to a handful of nodes. |
0 commit comments