bitcoinkernel-node

A minimal Bitcoin full node that connects to a single peer, downloads the blockchain, and validates each block. The project demonstrates how to build a minimal full-validation node using libbitcoinkernel, Bitcoin Core's validation engine library for external applications and a P2P library for serializing / deserializing p2p messages.

peer ──request_headers──▶ BlockHeader ─────▶ ProcessBlockHeader
peer ──request_block ───▶ BlockMessage ────▶ ProcessBlock
                                              └─ kernel validates, stores blocks

Build

conan install . --output-folder=build --build=missing -s build_type=Release -s compiler.cppstd=23
cmake --preset conan-release
cmake --build --preset conan-release

Run

# signet, peers found via DNS seeds
./build/build/Release/bitcoinkernel_node --chain signet --datadir ~/.bitcoinkernel-node/signet

# same, but in the background; stop it with `kill <pid>` (SIGTERM shuts down cleanly)
./build/build/Release/bitcoinkernel_node --chain signet --datadir ~/.bitcoinkernel-node/signet --daemon
tail -f ~/.bitcoinkernel-node/signet/debug.log

Every run appends timestamped output to <datadir>/debug.log; with --daemon that file is the only place it goes. See doc/daemon.md for running it in the background.

What it does

• Connects to one peer found via DNS seeds and performs the version handshake
• Syncs headers from connected peer
• validation is done through libbitcoinkernel C++ wrapper.
• Currently it has been tested only on signet and regtest.

The data directory holds the kernel's blocks/ and chainstate/ — the same layout Bitcoin Core uses plus peers.txt for stroing addresses.