Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some common questions to get you started
If you don’t find your question on this page, please send us a message via our Contact page
There are multiple categories of nodes, some of which are on-chain nodes (“L1 nodes”), and lightning nodes (“L2 nodes”). They are an integral part of the Bitcoin network, and are important to run depending on your utilisation of Bitcoin. They enable the “trust-less” side of Bitcoin, and allow you to be a fully sovereign individual.
From a broad perspective, Bitcoin nodes are important for:
Security: They help maintain the security of the Bitcoin network by validating transaction blocks and ensuring that only valid data is added to the blockchain. This prevents double-spending and other forms of fraud. Additionally, running your own node allows you not to trust anyone. One can’t lie to your node.
Network Privacy: . If you use someone else´s node, they have access to your transactional activity via your exposed y xpub (ie public key) Worse, your privacy (IP) may also be exposed and linked to your funds! Imagine that. Your finances (xpub) and your location (IP) out there on the net. This is what we call a huge security risk. No privacy = no security.
Remember: your privacy will also depend on your UTXO management – which we’ll help you optimise!
Consensus enforcement: Nodes enforce the consensus rules of the Bitcoin protocol. Your node, your rules. Of course the incentive is to go along with the rest of the network. You would be an outcast otherwise.
When it comes to Lightning and L2 nodes, if it is not your node it is technically not your money. It may be, legally, but not in absolute terms. In Bitcoin land, this is concerning for obvious reasons (privacy, censorship etc…)
That is why we offer our BTCPAY Bundle, which comes with a fully integrated L2 node, manageable via RTL.
In summary, Bitcoin nodes play a crucial role in maintaining the integrity, security, and decentralisation of the Bitcoin network. Running a node is a way for individuals and organisations to protect themselves, support the Bitcoin network and contribute to its continued growth and success.
Shuken helps you access L1 and L2 Bitcoin nodes with full privacy and security.
A network of nodes running the Shuken Tech stack* which benefits from Shuken Sync, our Indexer, integrations and more. This enables a Value 4 Value model without any alt-coins, tokens, ICO and all that stuff. Bitcoin only.
We are gradually enriching components of the Shuken Network. Some of our cloud pro nodes customers are already part of the Shuken Network, which in simple terms is a distributed network of nodes that run our Indexer and data model, which everyone of our customers (wallets, Shuken customers, etc) can leverage on.
Gone are the days where Bitcoin miners are the only ones with economic incentives to run nodes. Our commitment towards decentralization is as strong as ever.
*Please note that we deploy the unchanged version of Bitcoin Core and create value layers and services on top. We aim to help maintain bitcoin’s core values.
The Shuken Explorer leverages on our own Indexer which is a distributed search engine that runs advanced & unique queries over the Bitcoin data. You can fetch data directly from your node to run queries and analytics.
Our Indexer is part of a bigger product (Shuken Engine) , which ultimately any wallet/merchant that implements/integrates it, will leverage on new endless possibilities and data models that surely consumers will want (scoring, alerts, etc), as well as other key integrations.
Our Explorer is already used by top Bitcoin privacy experts who have already seen the power of some of the queries that can be done.
We have different versions of our Shuken Explorer in our nodes. but this is just one of the components of our Analytical tools, as we have others like Shuken Studio, which has a built in SQL model over the Bitcoin Blockchain data model.
For our cloud offering, you can go to our Node Selection page at console.shuken.io and choose what services you want there. Self-hosted Shuken nodes will also have different alternatives to access to paid services, but all will be fully decentralised from the node dashboard itself, rather than the cloud offering that will be via our console.shuken.io
You can always upgrade to a pro node by selecting it from the node selector page in your Shuken Console.
We are working on open-sourcing the Shuken tech stack. It is our mission to help people to have the best usage and access to the Bitcoin network. We want to empower users to run their own nodes in their own hardware, knowing that if they find it hard, we will be there when they need it. Stay tuned as we continue announcing our open source plans and offerings.
The short answer is no. As opposed to some hosting and or cloud providers where you rent an instance/machine to install and or run a given software, Shuken, simply offers you the hosting of a node and its services but not full access to the instance so that you can install any other software you want on it. We will however, give access to a web terminal interface inside some of our node offerings to perform basic routine maintenance operations.
Once you pay for the product selected you will see how much time is left before the node goes offline under my account section in your Shuken Consose where you can see a list of the nodes you have online and running.
A few days before it goes offline you will receive a notification as a reminder as well as instructions on how to continue with your services activated.
Alternatively, you can go anytime to console.shuken.io wheres you can add extend your node subscription.
Please note that once extended , an extra 30 days period will be added to the product plan you have.
Remember that you can spin up as many nodes as you want in our professional plans.
Lastly, do not forget one of our taglines: Shuken empowers sovereignty one node at a time, so you can come back anytime again to spin up a new node once the previously used one goes offline.
Sovereignty and decentralization go hand in hand in Shuken, so do not forget that before your node goes offline you have taken the necessary measures (specially for lightning channels and or BTCPAY hosting products), as we have no control or visibility into what do you do with your nodes.
Initially, once you purchase any of our monthly plans, it cannot be cancelled, neither refunded. You have 30 days to use that subscription type purchased.
Remember that you can always try some of our services in our free community product.
You could always have the option to simply try us for a month, or use some of our trial promotions we will be having, but we are sure you will want us to offer you instead a tier pricing for longer period of our “SaaS (Sovereignty as a Service) model”, beyond just one month.
There is not a concept of an “account” per se, but rather an access to a node service via an email address of your choice which will be used to access your nodes via magic link. Password and accounts are a thing of the past, and here in Shuken with our no logs policy we are fully committed to make your experience in becoming a sovereign bitcoiner a much easier one than what you are used to in the legacy internet era.
As a Bitcoin only company we only accept BTC (On-Chain and Lightning). We might add others in the future, but our standard is and will be Bitcoin.
As a no logs company, all your data is only saved in your device´s browser local storage. There is no such a thing as a traditional account with a username and password, as you simply need to remember/have one email to access (via magic link) our services from any device or browser you prefer. You can always back up you browser´s local storage, but we have no records of what you do with your “account”.
You can also “logout” from your account at any time and that will simply delete the session (auth token) from the browser you have used to access your Shuken Console.
It is important to note, that for services like BTCPAY we will have 0 access to your account and or any of your credentials. Do not lose them and please feel free configure inside your BTCPAY a mail server to at least enable email notifications like the one needed for the “forgotten btcpay password”.
Our BTCPAY Bundle, once payment is settled will take max 5 mins for you to access. You will receive notification once it is online, but please bear in mind that depending on your dns, once it is online, your browser might take a few seconds extra to fully display the node info and access correctly. If that happens, simply refresh the page every few seconds until everything is displayed correctly.
Regarding BTCPAY access (link), that may take some extra time to be available and be synced with the bitcoin network. The average is 15 to 20 mins to have all ready, but do not despair if it takes a bit longer, as sometimes the syncing of the BTCPAY with the Bitcoin Blockchain can take just a little bit longer than that.
You will only be able to see the BTCPAY onion address access if you access your Shuken Node via the onion access link found under (Node Info)
Shuken doesn’t keep usage logs. Your IP is hashed preventing anyone to connect the dots between user behaviour and user location
Your activity and auth token are stored in your browser local storage that we cannot access in any way, and our web server is not logging any usage. For more information feel free to check on our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use (https://shuken.io/terms/)
All our paid services have a fully dedicated instance where most services contracted will be deployed in your own instance with your own dedicated IP. This is part of our no logs and decentralized by design model, as other “cloud” providers will simply share same ip/instance for various customers/services, being this also a single point of failure.
Only Enterprise offering may have full ssh rights over the instance where we will deploy your Shuken Node/Services contracted if customers require so.
As part as our no logs and privacy by design framework, we do not have access to any of the information in your node neither personal information like ip addresses, etc. At time of creation, while provisioning the nodes, our automated node manager has temporary ssh access to nodes to install some of the services needed for your Shuken node to run as expected. The access is disabled once the node is fully online and synced, ready to be used by our customers. Shuken nodes are part of our decentralized Shuken network, where the only rights we have is to make sure it is online but have zero visibility into what customers do with their nodes.
BTCPay Server is an open source payment processor, enabling merchants to accept Bitcoin payments with no middleman or transaction fees. Payments go directly to the wallet you want/configure. It has many types of integrations for your eccommerce, from API, to woocommerce, shopify, etc.
With Shuken BTCPAY Hosting you will enjoy the power of experiencing BTC and Lightning payments even with your own domain (DNS)
For more details on the power of BTCPAY (integrations, settings, etc), please visit https://btcpayserver.org/
Yes. That option can be found inside your paid node, called BTCPAY Config, with basic but straightforward instructions to enable that.
Please remember that you will have to previously make some changes with your DNS provider, and those changes may take time to propagate over the internet. Only once propagated you could proceed to save your new customized URL of choice, so our service will take care of the rest.
It is very important to note that our recommendation is that if you are going to enable a custom URL, you use a DNS provider like Cloudfare, as they are experts in networking which will add an extra layer of security to that URL/IP you are trying to have configured for your BTCPAY Store.
Please remember that while our systems are designed to protect our customers and services, we may have an add-on offering to help you protect your new URL/IP. You may appreciate that in the event that your new customized URL goes through a DDOS or similar network attack, we might have to revert back to your original Shuken network node URL. Hence the importance of following our recommendation of using services like Cloudfare and/or getting any of the add-ons we may offer ourselves to give your site the best possible solution to be safe from attackers.
Lastly, remember that we have no control/access over what you do inside your BTCPAY server, so we highly recommend having your store and server settings previously configured before you go and customize your URL.
For further information, we also recommend checking the BTCPAY Server documentation: https://docs.btcpayserver.org/
WARNING!
Please remember that we have no control/access over what you do inside your BTCPAY server, if you did not configure your email server settings during the setup of your BTCPAY server account, you will not be able to receive the “forgotten password” email to reset your access.
