bitcoinghost
mainnet · testing

Infrastructure for Bitcoin,
with incentives for running it.

A bitcoin node stack built on three layers. Incentivised node. Decentralised mining. Private payments. Open source, running on mainnet today.

Run a node → Read the docs
pool hashrate
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active miners
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active nodes
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network block
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What Ghost is

Three ideas. One stack. No protocol changes.

Ghost Core

We are incentivising node operators. Every node earns from the infrastructure it provides. A shared node reward pool, funded by mining fees and L2 transaction fees, pays out based on verified capabilities — archive storage (+5 shares), payment service (+4 shares), public mining (+3 shares), clean policy (+2 shares), elder status (+1 share). No operator, no admin keys, no trust assumption.

Ghost Pool

Every node chooses its own mempool and block policy. Each node runs its own mini pool, which is part of the Ghost Pool. Every node that enables mining decentralises the network. Multiple operation modes — PublicPool, PrivateSolo and PrivatePool. Miners connect with standard Stratum V1 or V2. No central operator controls block construction or reward distribution. A BFT quorum of nodes agrees on payouts before each block lands. 1% pool fee.

Ghost Pay

A payment layer built into the nodes that enable private and near instant payments. Ghost Pay settles between 1 and 10 seconds using shielded notes and zero-knowledge proofs. No payment channels, no liquidity management. All in Bitcoin. No tokens. No swaps. We're bringing Silent Payments for stealth receiving and introducing Wraith, a decentralised (CoinJoin) mixing service for privacy and unlinkability. Balances reconcile back to L1.

Architecture

The full stack in one binary.

A single Ghost node runs Ghost Core, Ghost Pool, and Ghost Pay from one process. Nodes coordinate over a ZMQ mesh, reaching BFT consensus on shares, coinbase outputs, and node payouts before every block. Operators and users interact with their node through a small family of clients.

one ghost node
Ghost Core
full Bitcoin node
Ghost Pool
SV1 / SV2 mining pool
Ghost Pay
L2 private payments
↑ ↓
BFT mesh via ZMQ — nodes vote on shares, coinbase outputs, and node payouts
↑ ↓
another ghost node
Ghost Core
full Bitcoin node
Ghost Pool
SV1 / SV2 mining pool
Ghost Pay
L2 private payments
Frontend clients
Node Dashboard
Next.js · localhost
Node TUI
terminal UI
Ghost CLI
light wallet
Ghost Pay Desktop
Wraith + Tap · Win / Mac / Linux
Ghost Tap
Android · merchant + wallet
Economics

Run a node, own the revenue.

Bitcoin Ghost is designed so rewards flow to the people running the infrastructure. Miners keep 99% of every block subsidy. The node that miner is connected to keeps 100% of that block's transaction fees. Connect your own ASIC to your own node and you capture the full block — connect to someone else's node and you're handing your fees to them.

Block subsidy
99%
Miner
1%
Pool fee
0.5%
Node reward pool
0.5%
Treasury *
Transaction fees
100%
Winning node
* Treasury hard-capped at 21 BTC. A 5-year linear decay begins once the cap is reached, after which the full 1% flows to the node reward pool forever.
Miner cut — 99% of subsidy
Pool fee is a flat 1% on block subsidy only; transaction fees are never touched.
Node rewards — 5-4-3-2-1 shares
Half of the 1% funds a shared node reward pool, distributed by verified capabilities: Archive +5, Ghost Pay +4, Public Mining +3, Reaper +2, Elder +1. Max 15 shares, 95% uptime over 7 days required.
Treasury — capped, then decays to zero
The other 0.5% funds the treasury, hard-capped at 21 BTC. On reaching the cap a 5-year linear decay begins: 0.5 → 0.4 → 0.3 → 0.2 → 0.1 → 0. After that, the full 1% flows to the node reward pool forever. No governance, no votes, no future discretion.
Features

What's in the box.

Ghost Core
BUDS
Tier-based local policy dial. Operators accept or reject transactions by class — T0 financial, T1 data, T2 content, T3 abusive — without forking or recompiling.
Reaper
Consensus-safe dead-code filter. Rejects inscription envelopes, runestones, drop stuffing, fake multisig, P2TR annex abuse and oversized OP_RETURNs.
Shroud
Randomised relay delays defeating timing correlation attacks.
Ghost Mode
Blocks-only relay preventing origin-address leakage from mempool analysis.
Exorcism
Defensive block storage. Blocks are validated in RAM, then hazeable fields — witness, scriptSig, OP_RETURN, coinbase data — are stripped before disk. Harmful bytes never persist.
Tor or Clearnet
Embedded Tor subprocess or clean clearnet P2P routing, configurable per node.
Decentralised voting
67% Byzantine Fault Tolerant quorum on payouts and consensus actions, gossiped over a ZMQ mesh.
Incentivised share system
Capabilities earn a share of the 0.5% node reward pool: Archive +5, Ghost Pay +4, Public Mining +3, Reaper +2, Elder +1. Max 15 shares. Requires 95% uptime over a trailing 7 days.
Ghost Pool
Per-node pool
Each node constructs its own block templates. The pool is the federation of every node that opts in.
Stratum V1 & V2
Any ASIC connects immediately; SV2 speaks natively to the upstream pool.
Public mining
Accept external miners via Stratum; verified by port accessibility probes.
BFT payout consensus
67% supermajority agreement on reward distribution before block inclusion.
Operation modes
PublicPool, PrivateSolo, PrivatePool — operators choose who connects to their node.
Ghost Pay
Instant settlement
1–10 second L2 settlement using shielded notes and zero-knowledge proofs. No payment channels, no liquidity management.
Ghost Pay capability
Node runs the L2 payment service; verified by L2 block lookup challenges.
Silent Payments
BIP-352 stealth addresses. One static address, unique one-time outputs.
Wraith
Decentralised CoinJoin mixing with blind signing for transaction unlinkability. Every node can coordinate rounds and earn fees.
Ghost Locks
Timelocked P2TR outputs with key rotation and L1 settlement.
Ghost ID
Silent Payment identity for receiving L2 payments without being online.
Roadmap

Path to mainnet launch.

completed
Core build
ghost-core, ghost-pool, ghost-pay, wallets, verification system, ZK circuits, MPC ceremony.
now
Mainnet testing
Observe-only deployment across four production nodes. Hardening the checkpoint pipeline and consensus. Soak tests running continuously.
target
Mainnet launch · July 2026
Full production with elder registration, mining, and Ghost Pay active from block 1.