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Bitcoin Core (macOS)

This repository explains the methods and processes used to install Bitcoin Core and its relevant packages/files.

Materials used

  1. MacBookAir M1 (macOS Ventura)
  2. HDD (4TB External Hard Drive)
  3. Homebrew (macOS package manager)

Installation of Bitcoin Core

As of this writing (May 28th, 2024), the latest release version of Bitcoin Core is 27.0 and can be downloaded from the link below. Download the relevant version of Bitcoin Core according to your computer settings.

https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-27.0/

For macOS users, download bitcoin-27.0-arm64-apple-darwin-unsigned.tar.gz and then move the file to the directory you want. Once the file is uncompressed, a new folder called bitcoin-27.0 will appear. Move on to the uncompression_path/bitcoin-27.0/bin directory

$ cd bitcoin-27.0/bin
$ ls -al
drwxr-xr-x@ 9 user  admin       288 Jun  2 04:57 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 9 user  admin       288 May 28 13:22 ..
-rwxr-xr-x  1 user  admin    505232 May 19 21:05 bitcoin-cli
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 user  admin  30629872 May 19 21:05 bitcoin-qt
-rwxr-xr-x  1 user  admin   2268096 May 19 21:06 bitcoin-tx
-rwxr-xr-x  1 user  admin    347072 May 19 21:06 bitcoin-util
-rwxr-xr-x  1 user  admin   5123920 May 19 21:06 bitcoin-wallet
-rwxr-xr-x  1 user  admin  11871232 May 19 21:03 bitcoind
-rwxr-xr-x  1 user  admin  19950928 May 19 21:07 test_bitcoin

Inside the directory, you will see 7 Unix Executable Files and if you try to run them in the terminal, you might receive the following warning message: ("bitcoin-qt" is damaged and cannot be opened. You should move it to the Trash.) In order to resolve this issue, enter the commands below.

$ codesign -v -d bitcoin-qt
$ codesign -s - bitcoin-qt
$ xattr -d com.apple.quarantine $(pwd)/bitcoin-qt

Do the same commands for the rest of the Unix Executable Files inside the bitcoin-27.0/bin directory.

Downloading Bitcoin Core Data

$ ./bitcoin-qt

If you have enough storage space in your computer, just download the data with default data directory path. If not, set your Bitcoin Core data directory to custom, and make a new one in your HDD. The download & syncing process will start immediately. When using HDD, the download & syncing process might be slow. Try to wait until the process speeds up. If the slow download speed problem still lingers, try the steps shown below.

  1. Stop bitcoin-qt
  2. Open finder and move on to the directory in your HDD where Bitcoin Core data is being downloaded. Find a folder called "chainstate".
  3. Rename "chainstate" to "chainstate_deprecated".
  4. Create a folder called "chainstate" in the uncompression_path/bitcoin-27.0 directory and copy the entire contents of "chainstate_deprecated" and paste all of them to the new "chainstate" folder.
  5. Create a symbolic link between the HDD Bitcoin data directory and bitcoin-27.0/chainstate directory.
$ ln -s /path/to/uncompression_path/bitcoin-27.0/chainstate /path/to/HDD_Bitcoin_data_directory
  1. Restart bitcoin-qt with this new settings. This will make the download speed faster than before.

Downloading TOR network

Homebrew package manager must be pre-installed before downloading TOR. Download TOR using brew and make TOR service data directory.

$ brew install tor
$ sudo chown -R username:usergroup /opt/homebrew/var/lib/tor/BitcoinCore/
$ sudo chmod -R 700 /opt/homebrew/var/lib/tor/BitcoinCore/

The TOR configuration file can be found at /opt/homebrew/etc/tor/torrc and the log file is at /opt/homebrew/var/log/tor.log. Open the config file.

$ nano /opt/homebrew/etc/tor/torrc

And set the options as shown below.

DataDirectory /opt/homebrew/var/lib/tor
HiddenServiceDir /opt/homebrew/var/lib/tor/BitcoinCore/
HiddenServicePort 8333 127.0.0.1:8333

# Network
SOCKSPort 9050
ControlPort 9051
CookieAuthentication 1
Log notice file /opt/homebrew/var/log/tor.log

Now start the tor network and check the log file. If there are no warning or error messages, you are good to go.

$ brew services start tor

The onion address of the TOR network is available on the path you set as the "HiddenServiceDir". Check the "hostname" file data.

$ cat /opt/homebrew/var/lib/tor/BitcoinCore/hostname

Configuration of Bitcoin Core

Bitcoin configuration file can be found in uncompression_path/bitcoin-27.0 folder (look for bitcoin.conf file).

$ nano uncompression_path/bitcoin-27.0/bitcoin.conf

And set the options as shown below.

dbcache=1024
bind=127.0.0.1
discover=0
listen=1
externalip=owdhrhanf7tfovhqckqi5qiuoe6pnm3py3kpkk257x333r47xgxd5iid.onion:8333 # onion address
onlynet=onion
proxy=127.0.0.1:9050

#RPC options
rpcallowip=127.0.0.1
rpcallowip=192.168.0.0/24
rpcuser=blacksabbath
rpcpassword=paranoid
rpcport=8332
server=1

Now to link this new configuration to the bitcoin node, use -conf option when running bitcoin-qt.

$ ./bitcoin-qt -conf=uncompression_path/bitcoin-27.0/bitcoin.conf

Remarks

Setting the internet connection to use static IPv4 address on macOS

  1. Wi-Fi settings => Details => TCP/IP => configure IPv4 => Manually
  2. Set the static IPv4 address to whatever address you want to use (i.e 192.168.0.31)
  3. Usually the network settings can be changed at https://192.168.0.1
  4. If 3 is the case, then on your macOS Wi-Fi settings page, add 192.168.0.1 as a DNS server address
  5. Port forwarding is required. If you are in a double NAT situation (that is, your external ip address is within the private ip range), port forwarding should be done on both routers. If port forwarding is not an option due to permission issues, there won't be any inbound connections. (Although this won't be a problem with data syncing.) In this case, using tor network can bypass the double NAT problem.