Connecting a Bitaxe to your own Bitcoin node: setting up Public Pool on Umbrel

A solo pool such as our pool.opensourceminers.de runs the node and the stratum server for you. If you want to run both yourself, Umbrel and the Public Pool app give you a setup with no third-party server between miner and Bitcoin network: your node builds the block template, your Bitaxe hashes it, and a found block goes entirely to your address. This guide takes you from an empty node to the first share – with every value you need to enter.

What the three building blocks do

The Bitcoin node (the “Bitcoin Node” app on Umbrel, Bitcoin Core underneath) holds the full blockchain, validates every new block against the consensus rules and knows the current mempool. Public Pool is a small stratum server that fetches this data from the node via RPC, builds block templates from it and hands them to connected miners; if a miner finds a valid block, Public Pool submits it to the network through the node. The Bitaxe delivers the hash rate – it computes, nothing else. A node produces no hash rate, and Public Pool does not replace a miner.

Set your expectations right: the chance of finding a block with your own node is exactly the same as on an external solo pool. You gain independence and insight, not probability. What your model’s hash rate is worth is calculated in Finding a block with a Bitaxe.

Prerequisites

The sync must be complete before Public Pool can do anything useful: while the node is still catching up it does not know the current chain tip, and every block template would be stale. The progress is shown in Umbrel right inside the Bitcoin Node app. If you pick the Sovereign Stack from the shop, LiquidBox and miner come matched – the sync still runs once.

Step 1: install Public Pool on Umbrel

1. Open Umbrel in the browser (http://umbrel.local), App Store → “Public Pool” → Install. The app requires the Bitcoin Node app and connects to it automatically – there is nothing to configure.
2. After installation click Open. The interface shows the connection details at the top: stratum+tcp://umbrel.local:2018, username <your BTC address>.<worker name>, password x.
3. That is all. Public Pool is free, has no account and no settings you need to touch. The interface is for monitoring only.

Step 2: connect the Bitaxe in AxeOS

Open AxeOS in the browser via the miner’s IP (shown on the display), Settings → Pool Configuration:

Save, then Restart. Within one to two minutes the pool status in the AxeOS dashboard turns green, “Best Difficulty” starts climbing, and the miner appears in the Public Pool interface as soon as you enter your address in the “Address” field and click My Workers.

Several miners on the same node

Every additional Bitaxe gets the same values – only the worker name after the dot changes: bc1q….gamma1, bc1q….gamma2, bc1q….nerdqaxe. Public Pool lists the workers separately with hash rate and best difficulty and adds them up to the pool hash rate. A found block goes to the address before the dot regardless of the worker. A single node easily serves a dozen home miners; the block template is the same for all of them.

The six mistakes from support

1. Node still syncing. Public Pool runs, the miner connects, but no shares arrive or the miner keeps disconnecting. Wait for the sync to finish in the Bitcoin Node app, then restart the miner.
2. Port 3333 instead of 2018. The most common mistake: 3333 is right for almost every external pool, but on Umbrel Public Pool listens on 2018.
3. stratum+tcp://umbrel.local:2018 pasted whole into the host field. AxeOS wants host and port separately; with the protocol or the port in the host field the connection fails.
4. Guest Wi-Fi. Guest networks block access to other devices on the home network. The miner is online but cannot reach the Umbrel. Move the Bitaxe to the normal 2.4 GHz network.
5. Address typed by hand. One wrong character means you are mining for a stranger – and Public Pool cannot warn you, because any syntactically valid address is accepted. Always copy, then double-check in your wallet.
6. Everything changed at once. Host, port, password, Wi-Fi and firmware in one go – afterwards nobody knows what helped. Order: sync finished? → Public Pool reachable (Open in Umbrel)? → host/port in AxeOS → address → restart.

If the miner still produces no shares, the troubleshooter walks through the remaining causes from router to firmware.

Security: open nothing to the outside

This setup needs no port forwarding in the router – miner and node talk exclusively on the home network. Anyone opening port 2018 to the internet invites strangers’ miners onto their node and makes the Umbrel needlessly attackable. Remote access to the Umbrel dashboard goes through the intended routes (the Tailscale app from the Umbrel App Store), not through open mining ports.

Own node or solo pool?

Both routes are equally promising. The node is worth it if you run one for your wallet anyway or want to – then Public Pool is a two-minute installation on top. If you just want to mine, enter our pool’s values and save yourself the hardware. Whether your own node makes sense for you is covered in Running your own Bitcoin node.