Bitcoin Block Clock: an engineer creates an artistic clock node to keep the first blockchain

Within the bitcoiner ecosystem, the role of the nodes for the network is extremely significant, since they form the security and validation structure of the blockchain. However, there are elements that play against its expansion, -price, difficult access, among others-. Therefore, an American engineer created one that can be more attractive, as much for its functionality, as for the low cost of its production and even its esthetics.

This is Bitcoin Block Clock Jr. created by Matthew Zipkin. The sound engineer has developed affordable hardware to house a complete node of Bitcoin, where the blocks and their addition to the chain are shown as LED lights as a clock. Recall that the complete nodes are extremely important, as they are responsible for validating transactions in the Bitcoin blockchain. And the more complete nodes exist, the more decentralized and protected the network will be.

"I always wanted one (from Bitnodes), but they disappeared when they were purchased (Bitnodes for 21), so I decided to build mine," said Zipkin in reference to the full-node devices made by Bitnodes; And although there are other options to get this type of hardware, this was an important motivation to make your 'clock'. The idea was to create something more than a piece to place next to the Internet connection, because Zipkin wanted to do something new and artistic.

The first version of the Bitcoin Block Clock was displayed during the "Art Trial" event in May last year, and included several interesting details, such as a screen showing real-time information about the network. After receiving good feedback and comments on Reddit from the community, he decided to launch a 'Junior' version of the hardware, which would be simpler and cheaper but equally artistic. The original version was put up for sale by Zipkin on OpenBazaar and Purse.io, but has not been sold. "The price is quite high because it's art and I love it and I think I want to keep it ... Of course, it has not yet been sold," said Zipkin.

For the Jr. version, Zipkin returned to Raspberry Pi Zero - which should be the cheapest computer in the world - and Bcoin, an implementation of the protocol Bitcoin written in Node.js., as explained, Bcoin is very easy to install And use, since the code base is in Javascript. The engineer used a reduced Bcoin complete node, trying to limit the system resources to which the node needs to operate in Raspberry Pi Zero.

On the functioning of this clock-node, its creator commented:

The Bitcoin Block Clock Jr. has two LED rings. The outer ring of 24 LEDs indicates recent blocks. Each LED represents 2 minutes, and "marks" clockwise around the ring. The LED color is determined by the block version (BIP 9 version bits combined with keywords in the CoinbaseSig script as "/ EXTBLK" or "/ EB1 / AD6 /"). The inner ring of 16 LEDs indicates the progress of the current difficulty period (2,016 blocks, or approximately two weeks). It starts in blue and gradually becomes more and more red as the meter fills up.
Matthew Zipkin

Designer - Engineer, Bitcoin Block Clock

With this contribution, in addition to an artistic piece, product of his ingenuity, Zipkin provides an economic means for the community to contribute to the growth and assurance of the ecosystem and the blockchain. And as he wrote in his account on the social network Twitter, shortly after going on sale he ran out of stock. So, those who wish to acquire it, will have to wait for the arrival of more.

The creator noted that while the original version has other utilities, the Jr. model shows that users need very little to run their own complete nodes, at least in Bcoin reduced mode, such as the case of this watch, whose technical details are Open source and can be found on GitHub.