Decred Node VPS Hosting

A Decred full node runs the dcrd daemon, which validates the chain and participates in peer-to-peer block propagation. The Decred protocol is hybrid PoW plus PoS, so a full node validates both the work-based block production and the stake-based vote tallying that determines chain progression. The validation workload is comfortable on a 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM VPS with NVMe storage. Storage is the principal constraint; the blockchain is several tens of gigabytes and grows steadily, so provision 80 GB or more to leave multi-year headroom.

Operators who want to participate in voting run dcrwallet alongside dcrd, with stake tickets purchased through the wallet and voting performed automatically on each ticket selection. The wallet handles ticket purchase, vote casting and revocation. Voting participation requires high uptime because missed votes are penalized through the revocation mechanism; a node with sporadic uptime is not appropriate for solo voting and operators in that situation typically delegate to a stake pool instead.

For an operator running a dcrd full node plus dcrwallet for solo voting, the recommended VPS spec is 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 100 GB NVMe with a static IPv4. The static IP matters because the wallet's connection to the network benefits from a stable identity. AnubizHost offshore plans include a static IPv4 in the entry tier and operators can specify additional IP requirements at provisioning time.

Stake pools (voting service providers in current Decred terminology) operate a pool of voting wallets that hold tickets on behalf of stakers who prefer not to run their own voting infrastructure. A stake pool needs higher uptime requirements than a solo voter because pool clients depend on the pool's reliability for their voting participation. Pool operators run vspd (the voting service provider daemon) alongside dcrd and dcrwallet on infrastructure that is sized for reliability rather than minimum cost.

Recommended pool infrastructure scales with subscriber count. A small to medium pool serving up to a few hundred subscribers operates comfortably on 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM and 200 GB NVMe storage, with adequate bandwidth headroom on a 1 Gbps uplink. Larger pools benefit from running dcrd on a separate VPS to isolate the chain validation workload from the vspd service. AnubizHost supports private interconnect between VPS instances in the same node for pool operators who want this separation.

Pool operators publish a verification process so stakers can confirm that the pool is operating honestly. The verification typically includes proof of pool fee structure, voting record statistics and uptime SLA. Operators who want to advertise privacy-respecting hosting can include the offshore jurisdiction and the no-log hypervisor in their verification disclosures. AnubizHost provides documentation that pool operators can reference in their published disclosures.

Decred operators have a public profile because the node and the voting wallet are visible on chain. Operator privacy at the hosting layer remains valuable because the relationship between the node and the operator's real-world identity should not be trivially recoverable through hosting records. AnubizHost accepts DCR alongside BTC, ETH, XMR and USDT for hosting invoices, with no KYC at signup and a billing record that contains only the account email and the transaction hash.

At the hypervisor level we do not retain traffic captures or netflow archives for Decred customer traffic beyond live abuse triage. There is no historical record of peer connections, voting traffic or wallet RPC calls. The VPS disk image is encrypted at rest on the host node and we do not maintain a backup unless the operator opts into the snapshot service. For operators who hold ticket-funding wallets on the VPS, additional encryption of the wallet file with a strong passphrase is the standard hardening step.

Jurisdiction choice is again straightforward. Iceland and Romania are the defaults in our catalog. Operators who want low latency to the largest Decred peer set pick a European location; operators who want maximum separation from EU data frameworks pick Iceland. Both are appropriate for long-running dcrd deployments and both have community precedent for hosting cryptocurrency network infrastructure.