Licence: MIT
Original Author: Neil Booth
Current Maintainers: The Electrum developers
Language: Python (>= 3.10)
This project is a fork of kyuupichan/electrumx. The original author dropped support for Bitcoin, which we intend to keep.
ElectrumX allows users to run their own Electrum server. It connects to your full node and indexes the blockchain, allowing efficient querying of the history of arbitrary addresses. The server can be exposed publicly, and joined to the public network of servers via peer discovery. As of May 2020, a significant chunk of the public Electrum server network runs ElectrumX.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-pip python3-venv libleveldb-devgit clone https://github.com/spesmilo/electrumx.git
cd electrumxpython3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .Create a file named electrumx.conf with essential settings:
# Cryptocurrency to serve
COIN=Bitcoin
# Database directory
DB_DIRECTORY=/path/to/electrumx/db
# Daemon URL - replace username:password with your credentials
DAEMON_URL=http://username:password@127.0.0.1:8332/
# Services - TCP (unencrypted), SSL (encrypted), and RPC (control interface)
SERVICES=tcp://:50001,ssl://:50002,rpc://:8000
# Public-facing services - Replace with your own domain name
REPORT_SERVICES=tcp://your-domain.example.com:50001,ssl://your-domain.example.com:50002
# SSL certificate and key - required for SSL connections
SSL_CERTFILE=/etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.example.com/fullchain.pem
SSL_KEYFILE=/etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.example.com/privkey.pem
# Enable peer discovery to connect with other servers
PEER_DISCOVERY=onSee the electrumx.conf.example file for a working template.
For detailed environment variable documentation, refer to docs/environment.rst.
For production servers, you should use proper SSL certificates from a Certificate Authority. Let's Encrypt provides free certificates that are recognized by all clients.
# Install Certbot
sudo apt update
sudo apt install certbot
# Obtain certificates (standalone method)
sudo certbot certonly --standalone -d your-domain.example.com
# The certificates will be saved to:
# /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.example.com/fullchain.pem
# /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.example.com/privkey.pem
# Update your electrumx.conf to point to these files:
SSL_CERTFILE=/etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.example.com/fullchain.pem
SSL_KEYFILE=/etc/
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letsencrypt/live/your-domain.example.com/privkey.pemRemember to set up automatic renewal:
# Test renewal process
sudo certbot renew --dry-run
# Add to crontab to check twice daily
sudo crontab -e
# Add this line:
0 0,12 * * * certbot renew --quietCreate a start script similar to start-electrumx.sh:
#!/bin/bash
cd ~/electrumx
# Clean bad env first
unset HOST
# Export config variables
export $(grep -v '^#' electrumx.conf | xargs)
# Launch server
./electrumx_serverMake it executable:
chmod +x start-electrumx.sh
./start-electrumx.shElectrumX includes systemd service examples in the contrib/systemd directory.
Create a systemd service file:
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/electrumx.serviceAdd the following content:
[Unit]
Description=ElectrumX Server
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
# Environment variables for ElectrumX
Environment=COIN=Bitcoin
Environment=DB_DIRECTORY=/path/to/electrumx/db
Environment=DAEMON_URL=http://username:password@127.0.0.1:8332/
Environment=SERVICES=tcp://:50001,ssl://:50002,rpc://:8000
Environment=REPORT_SERVICES=tcp://your-domain.example.com:50001,ssl://your-domain.example.com:50002
Environment=SSL_CERTFILE=/etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.example.com/fullchain.pem
Environment=SSL_KEYFILE=/etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.example.com/privkey.pem
Environment=PEER_DISCOVERY=on
ExecStart=/path/to/electrumx/electrumx_server
User=electrumx
Group=electrumx
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/electrumx
LimitNOFILE=8192
TimeoutStopSec=30min
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=60
# Security settings
NoNewPrivileges=true
PrivateTmp=true
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.targetEnable and start the service:
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable electrumx.service
sudo systemctl start electrumx.service# Check service status
sudo systemctl status electrumx.service
# View logs
sudo journalctl -u electrumx.service -f- ElectrumX requires a substantial amount of disk space to store the transaction index
- Initial sync can take several days depending on your hardware
- Recommended minimum: 4+ CPU cores, 16GB+ RAM, SSD storage
For detailed performance notes, see docs/PERFORMANCE-NOTES.
- Architecture Overview - How ElectrumX is designed
- Features List - Supported features and coins
- Protocol Documentation - Details of the Electrum protocol
- RPC Interface - Available RPC commands
- Peer Discovery - How servers find each other
ElectrumX includes Docker support. See the contrib/Dockerfile for details.
Besides systemd, ElectrumX also includes examples for:
- Daemontools - For daemontools service management
- Raspberry Pi - Optimized for Raspberry Pi deployments
For complete details, see readthedocs.
- IRC:
#electrumon Libera Chat - Issues: GitHub Issues