= NODE

Bitcoin Node. Connects to the network and downloads the blockchain into local storage.

== Usage

To run the node with the default options (download the blockchain into ./bitcoin.db
using the sequel::sqlite3 STORAGE backend):

 bitcoin_node

You can specify options (see +--help+) or pass a config file with +--config+ (see CONFIG).

Some common options you might want to change:

<tt>-n --network</tt> <i><name></i>::
  +bitcoin+ or +testnet+ network
<tt>--connect</tt> <i><ip:port></i>::
  list of peers to connect to
<tt>-s --storage</tt> <i><backend-string></i>::
 storage backend to use (see STORAGE)

It will take some time to download/store the entire blockchain at first, so be patient ;)


== Command client

The node opens a separate command socket which you can connect to and query statistics
or get notified about new blocks/tx, etc.

 bitcoin_node info  # general statistics

 bitcoin_node help  # list all commands

 bitcoin_node monitor block # wait for new blocks and output their hashes