<p>Yes. </p>

<p>A lightning node needs a way to refer a copy of the blockchain that it trusts, so the node can either have it locally <strong>or</strong> might refer to one using neutrino. That would allow you to run it without an external hard drive at all. You could run a lightning node on a rpi off just an ssd card by this method.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-28T17:38:31.307Z
2018-03-28T17:38:31.307Z
skang404
<p>Yes, you need to be able to query every transaction within the whole blockchain. Two ways to achieve that:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Run your own full node (with transaction indexing [txindex=1] and no pruning), that requires about 200 GB to store everything (see my <a href="https://github.com/Stadicus/guides/blob/master/raspibolt/README.md" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Raspberry Pi guide</a> for additional information)</p></li>
<li><p>Trust a remote Bitcoin node to tell you the truth, eg. using <a href="https://github.com/lightninglabs/neutrino/blob/master/README.md" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Neutrino</a>. This will be the enabler for all mobile applications and is currently tested on Bitcoin testnet. No mainnet release yet.</p></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-03T19:26:45.840Z
2018-05-03T19:26:45.840Z
Stadicus
<p>Looking to setup a lightning node, but what are the EXACT requirements? Do you have to install bitcoin core and fully have the blockchain downloaded of 150gb+?</p>

<bitcoin-core><nodes><lightning-network>
Do you have to have bitcoin core fully downloaded (150gb+) in order to run a lightning node?
Patoshi パトシ
# Do you have to have bitcoin core fully downloaded (150gb+) in order to run a lightning node?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-03-28)

Looking to setup a lightning node, but what are the EXACT requirements? Do you have to install bitcoin core and fully have the blockchain downloaded of 150gb+?

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, nodes, lightning-network


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-03-28. Score: 1

Yes.

A lightning node needs a way to refer a copy of the blockchain that it trusts, so the node can either have it locally **or** might refer to one using neutrino. That would allow you to run it without an external hard drive at all. You could run a lightning node on a rpi off just an ssd card by this method.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2018-05-03. Score: 0

Yes, you need to be able to query every transaction within the whole blockchain. Two ways to achieve that:

* Run your own full node (with transaction indexing [txindex=1] and no pruning), that requires about 200 GB to store everything (see my [Raspberry Pi guide](https://github.com/username_2/guides/blob/master/raspibolt/README.md) for additional information)
* Trust a remote Bitcoin node to tell you the truth, eg. using [Neutrino](https://github.com/lightninglabs/neutrino/blob/master/README.md). This will be the enabler for all mobile applications and is currently tested on Bitcoin testnet. No mainnet release yet.


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