Bitcoin Core

Install the GUI

Install the bitcoin-core package. (Note: Prior to 0.13.0, this package was named bitcoin.)

RHEL 8 / Fedoradnf install bitcoin-core
RHEL 7yum install bitcoin-core

Install the Server

Use the Bitcoin server to run a wallet server as a system service. The Bitcoin server distributed here is protected by SELinux and has some other slight differences you should be aware of.

When started from the system inititalization script, bitcoind stores all of its files in /var/lib/bitcoin instead of $HOME/.bitcoin and its configuration file is located at /etc/bitcoin/bitcoin.conf. This change was necessary to ensure that SELinux policies could be applied to them with maximum security. In particular, some system services may be allowed to access /home, and this change helps to ensure that such services, if compromised, cannot access the Bitcoin wallet.

Note that when you install or update the Bitcoin server, the installation may take an additional minute or so while its SELinux policies are being rebuilt on your system.

  1. Install the bitcoin-server package.
    RHEL 8 / Fedoradnf install bitcoin-server
    RHEL 7yum install bitcoin-server
  2. Set an RPC password for the server by creating or editing /etc/bitcoin/bitcoin.conf as root.
    rpcpassword=a_more_secure_password_than_this_one
  3. Set the Bitcoin server to start at boot time. Run systemctl enable bitcoin.
  4. If desired, start the Bitcoin server immediately. Run systemctl start bitcoin. Note that the Bitcoin server will not start if an RPC password is not set as shown above.

Install the Command Line Utilities

The bitcoin-cli command line program connects to a remote Bitcoin server via RPC. Beginning with version 0.10.0, you need to provide the RPC password in your user configuration file $HOME/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf. You can also explicitly point to the global configuration file with -conf /etc/bitcoin/bitcoin.conf, but as this requires being root it is not recommended.

The bitcoin-tx command line program creates and modifies transactions.

Both of these programs are in the bitcoin-utils package. Note that in versions prior to 0.10.0 this package was named bitcoin-cli and contained only the bitcoin-cli program.

Install the bitcoin-utils package.

RHEL 8 / Fedoradnf install bitcoin-utils
RHEL 7yum install bitcoin-utils

Install the Consensus Library

Developers who wish to use the libbitcoinconsensus library introduced with 0.10.0 can install the bitcoin-devel package to gain access to this library and the header files needed to use it.

Install the bitcoin-devel package.

RHEL 8 / Fedoradnf install bitcoin-devel
RHEL 7yum install bitcoin-devel