Run a BurritoCoin Node

A node is a copy of the BurritoCoin blockchain that talks to other copies and keeps everyone in sync. Running one helps the network stay decentralized — and it's the prerequisite for mining, building wallets, or hosting your own block explorer.

Why Bother

What a Node Actually Does

Your node downloads every block, verifies every transaction with its own copy of the rules, and relays valid messages to its peers. It doesn't trust anyone — it checks. The more independent nodes there are, the harder it is for any one party to censor, rewrite, or fork the chain unilaterally.

You don't need permission to run one. You don't need to register. You just need a computer with a few gigabytes of disk space and a working internet connection.

The network is small right now. A handful of nodes total. If you're reading this in the early days, your node materially improves the network's resilience.
Step 1 of 3

Install the Daemon

Building from source is the same on every platform — clone the repo, run ./configure && make, install. The mining guides walk through this in detail with the right dependencies for each OS:

🪟

Windows

WSL2 + Ubuntu build

 🍎

macOS

Homebrew + clang

 🐧

Linux

Most distros

Follow Step 1 on whichever guide matches your OS. Stop after you have burritocoind and burritocoin-cli installed and the node starts cleanly. You don't need the mining bits — just the daemon.

Step 2 of 3

Connect to the Network

A fresh node has no idea where other nodes are. You bootstrap it by pointing it at one known peer, and from there it discovers the rest automatically.

1

Find your config file

Default locations:

If it doesn't exist yet, create it.

2

Add the bootstrap peer

Open the file and add this line:

addnode=50.116.17.170:9227

That's the IP and P2P port of the current bootstrap node. Once your daemon connects to it, peer-exchange takes over and you'll automatically learn about every other node on the network.

3

Restart the daemon

burritocoin-cli stop
burritocoind

On macOS and Linux, you can also restart the GUI version (burritocoin-qt) — same effect.

Step 3 of 3

Verify You're Connected

1

Check peer count

burritocoin-cli getconnectioncount

Should return 1 or higher within a minute or two. If it stays at 0, your node can't reach the bootstrap — most likely a firewall blocking outbound port 9227, or the bootstrap is temporarily down.

2

Check sync progress

burritocoin-cli getblockchaininfo

Watch blocks tick up until it matches headers. The chain is small right now so full sync should take seconds, not hours.

3

See who you're connected to

burritocoin-cli getpeerinfo

A JSON array, one entry per peer. Look at addr, subver (should say something like /Satoshi:0.21.4/), and synced_blocks.

Want to help other nodes find you? Open inbound port 9227/tcp on your firewall and router. Other nodes will discover you via peer-exchange and connect — your machine becomes part of the bootstrap pool. Skip this if you're behind a restrictive NAT or just running a private node; outbound-only connections work fine.
For the Curious

What Actually Makes This "BurritoCoin"

The port (9227) is just a convention — anyone can run anything on it. What actually identifies the network is two things baked into the daemon:

1

Network magic bytes

Every P2P message starts with four bytes that act as a network ID. BurritoCoin's mainnet magic is 0x42 0x52 0x54 0x4f — the ASCII letters "BRTO". (Bitcoin uses 0xf9 0xbe 0xb4 0xd9; Litecoin uses 0xfb 0xc0 0xb6 0xdb.) If a peer sends anything else, the connection is dropped instantly. You can't accidentally connect a Bitcoin node to a BurritoCoin node, even if they're on the same port.

2

Genesis block hash

Every chain has a "block zero" — a hard-coded first block that everyone agrees on. BurritoCoin's mainnet genesis hash is: 

0x44615751d966cf772a051f65b8df4f3987adc48be1749a699369a18517418dce

After the magic-byte handshake, two peers verify they're on the same chain by comparing block headers starting from genesis. Different genesis = different chain = no connection.

So even if someone forks the source code and runs a node on port 9227, it's a different network unless they keep the same magic bytes and the same genesis. That's how Bitcoin, Litecoin, BurritoCoin, and every other Bitcoin-fork coexist on the public internet without ever stepping on each other.