Crypto Infrastructure: Deploying Full Nodes for Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin

January 9, 2026 mrbeandev 3 min read

Running your own nodes is the ultimate way to achieve financial sovereignty. Whether you're building a wallet service, an explorer, or just want to support the network, this guide will get your BTC, LTC, and DOGE nodes up and running on a Linux server.

1. Downloading the Binaries

First, we need to fetch the latest stable releases for all three currencies. While you can always check their respective GitHubs, these commands will get you started with standard x86_64 Linux builds.

# Litecoin Node
wget https://download.litecoin.org/litecoin-0.18.1/linux/litecoin-0.18.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz -O - | tar -xzv

# Bitcoin Core
wget https://bitcoin.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.20.0/bitcoin-0.20.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz -O - | tar -xzv

# Dogecoin Core
wget https://github.com/dogecoin/dogecoin/releases/download/v1.14.2/dogecoin-1.14.2-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz -O - | tar -xzv

2. System Integration

Once extracted, move the binaries to your system's /bin/ directory so you can run the commands from anywhere.

sudo mv bitcoin*/bin/* /bin/
sudo mv litecoin*/bin/* /bin/
sudo mv dogecoin*/bin/* /bin/

3. Automating Service Deployment

Instead of running these manually in a screen session, we should set them up as systemd services. This ensures they start automatically on boot and restart if they crash.

You can use the following script (save as node-setup.sh) to automate the service creation for any of these coins:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Enter the coin name (e.g., bitcoin, litecoin, dogecoin):"
read coinname

# Create the systemd service file
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/$coinname.service
[Unit]
Description=$coinname Daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/bin/${coinname}d -daemon \\
                            -conf=/etc/$coinname/${coinname}.conf \\
                            -datadir=/var/lib/${coinname}d
Type=forking
Restart=on-failure
User=root
Group=root

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

# Create config directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/$coinname/
sudo touch /etc/$coinname/${coinname}.conf

# Reload and enable
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable $coinname
sudo systemctl start $coinname

echo "$coinname service is now active!"

4. Configuring the Node

Each node needs a configuration file located at /etc/*coin*/*coin.conf. Here is a robust template you can use for all three.

Edit the file: nano /etc/dogecoin/dogecoin.conf (adjust for others)

# Basic Configuration
server=1
daemon=1
rpcuser=your_secure_username
rpcpassword=your_secure_password

# Resource Management
prune=2200  # Keeps the last 2.2GB of blockchain (Save disk space!)
dbcache=512 # Adjust based on your RAM (higher = faster sync)

# Connectivity
rpcallowip=127.0.0.1
rpcport=8223  # Standard: 8332 for BTC, 9332 for LTC, 22555 for DOGE

5. Monitoring the Sync

Syncing a blockchain takes time. You can monitor the progress by tailing the debug log:

# Change path based on the coin
tail -f /var/lib/dogecoind/debug.log

Typical Sync Times (Broadband Connection):

  • Litecoin: ~5-10 minutes (using headers/checkpoints) ⚡
  • Bitcoin: ~18-24 hours (with pruning) ⏳
  • Dogecoin: ~18-24 hours 🐕

Pro Tip: Advanced Automation For those looking for a production-grade Dogecoin setup, I've developed an Interactive Auto-Installer that auto-detects system specs, allocates optimal RAM for dbcache, and manages the node with a CLI menu.

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