⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

This project relies on an API that is not reliable. As such, I will not be updating this code.

docker-bitcoind-status

Uses Bitcoin's RPC interface to get node data and display it in a Python Flask application

• Source code: GitHub
• Image base: Python (slim Buster)
• Init system: N/A
• Application: N/A
• Architecture: linux/amd64

Explanation

• I was looking for a way to monitor my Bitcoin node from my phone, without needing to log in and tail the log files.
• There were already a few very good existing applications, but they didn't quite meet my needs:
  • mempool.space
  • btc-rpc-explorer
  • I'm also not looking to replace Clark Moody's dashboard, since this is supposed to be about statistics on a single node
• This project was heavily inspired by this script, but implemented (rather poorly) in Python, runs in Docker, and uses Bitcoin's RPC interface (to connect to remote nodes).
• ⚠️ Bitcoin's RPC connection is not encrypted via SSL (as-of v0.12.0), so do NOT use this over the public internet ⚠️
• ⚠️ I would recommend NOT running a wallet on the node you're querying, to minimize chance of loss of funds ⚠️

Requirements

• You must already have a working Bitcoin node somewhere, and the ability (via the bitcon.conf file) to connect to that node via the RPC interface.
• Because of the number of RPCs required, you'll need to set rpcworkqueue=32 (or higher) in bitcoin.conf.

Docker image information

Environment variables

Variable	Required?	Definition	Example	Comments
BITCOIND_HOST	No (default: localhost)	Bitcoin node address	'localhost' or your Docker service name
BITCOIND_PORT	No (default: 8332)	Bitcoin node	8332
RPC_USER	Yes	RPC username	satoshi
RPC_PASS	Yes	RPC password	Bitc0inIsGreat1
CURRENCY	No (default: USD)	Three-character currency code	USD	https://api.coinbase.com/v2/currencies
PAGE_TITLE	No (default: Bitcoind status)	HTML <title> tag	Bitcoin is great

Ports

Port on host	Port in container	Comments
Choose at your discretion	5000	Flask (web interface)

Volumes

N/A

Example usage

Build

git clone https://github.com/loganmarchione/docker-bitcoind-status.git
cd docker-bitcoind-status
sudo docker build --no-cache --file Dockerfile --tag loganmarchione/docker-bitcoind-status  .

Run

Page will be available only over HTTPS at https://YOUR_IP_ADDRESS:PORT_YOU_CHOSE (there will be a self-signed certificate from Flask).

sudo docker run --name docker-bitcoind-status \
  --env BITCOIND_HOST=10.10.1.32 \
  --env BITCOIND_PORT=8332 \
  --env RPC_USER=satoshi \
  --env RPC_PASS=Bitc0inIsGreat1 \
  --env CURRENCY=USD \
  --env PAGE_TITLE="Bitcoin is great" \
  -p 5000:5000 \
  loganmarchione/docker-bitcoind-status

TODO

• Learn Python
• Learn Flask
• Add a proper web server (e.g., Gunicorn, WSGI, etc...)
• Add a healthcheck
• Change request connection timeout (currently default)
• Fix error on bad node connection (should exit, but doesn't)
• Add second table
• Find more elegant way to make the RPCs (maybe a function or something?)
• Add price check
• Add better exception handling to price check
• Find a way to get total number of BTC mined (gettxoutsetinfo) was too slow
• Add favicon
• Add SSL support
• Switch to Ubuntu-based Python image (needed for SSL support)