Launched in June 2013 from Sydney, Australia, Bitnodes.IO allows you to use bitcoins to launch your own Amazon EC2 instances. Under the current provisioning, you will pay a flat rate USD 0.06 per hour per instance. Strictly no additional fees or charges.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a service provided by Amazon Web Services, Inc. An Amazon EC2 instance is essentially a server that you have a complete control of. The instance runs under Amazon computing environment. Amazon EC2 FAQs extends this FAQ in regards to the details of Amazon EC2.
Each user is limited to 1 running instance at any one time. Each instance comes with the following specs:
Bitnodes.IO is a pre-paid service. You can recharge USD 5, USD 30, USD 60 or USD 120 into your balance with bitcoins from your dashboard. You will be given a one-time-use Bitcoin address for each recharge request. Send the quoted bitcoins amount to the given address within the specified time limit to complete your recharge.
You can launch a new instance from your dashboard. When you launch a new instance, the associated private and public keys are generated for you. Save a copy of the private key and be sure to remove it from our system. Use the private key to SSH into your instance using this command: ssh -i <PRIVATE_KEY> ec2-user@<HOSTNAME>. You use the same key to SSH into your subsequent instances. USD 0.06 will be credited from your balance at the start of every hour for one running instance.
You can terminate your running instance from your dashboard. This operation is irreversible. Be sure to backup all your data elsewhere prior to terminating your instance. All data stored in your instance will be removed completely upon termination. Your instance will be terminated automatically if and only if your balance is at USD 0.00 when your instance entered the next running hour.
If your balance is USD 5 or more, you can choose to have the equivalent bitcoins amount sent back to you at a Bitcoin address of your choice. Please contact us to request a refund.
Bitnodes.IO is not affiliated with Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates nor is this service endorsed by Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. However, the terms of Amazon Web Services may apply for your use of the EC2 instances in addition to our terms of service.
We can be contacted via email at service (ΑΤ) bitnodes.io (PGP).