Your node
Every number on the dashboard comes from your own Bitcoin node over RPC. No block explorers, no third-party indexers.
For Bitcoiners who run their own node
Monitor your Bitcoin node from your Mac.
Bitcoin Core Monitor is a native macOS app for people who run a Bitcoin node themselves. It reads your own node over RPC, follows your watch-only wallets, and can never hold a private key.
- Works with Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots
- Native macOS app, built in SwiftUI
- Reads your own node — never a block explorer
- Watch-only: no keys, no signing, no spending
Why Bitcoin Core Monitor
You already verify.
Now you can see it.
You run a node because you don't outsource verification. Your monitoring shouldn't outsource it either. Bitcoin Core Monitor reads directly from the infrastructure you already trust — yours.
Your data
Balances, transactions and diagnostics stay on your Mac. Credentials live in the macOS Keychain — nowhere else.
Your wallet
Watch-only by architecture. The app imports public descriptors and can never hold a private key — there is no code path for it.
Your infrastructure
Node, ElectrumX, mempool, Bitaxe miner — the whole stack you operate, monitored from one native window.
Features
Everything you run, in one quiet dashboard.
Bitcoin node monitoring
Live status of the node you depend on.
- Block height & last block age
- Inbound / outbound peers
- Sync & verification progress
- Connection health at a glance
Watch-only wallets
Follow your stack without exposing it.
- Output descriptor support
- Multiple wallet profiles
- Hardware-wallet xpub import
- Watch-only enforced at runtime
Mempool insights
Know when to move — and when to wait.
- Next-block fee estimate
- Mempool pressure & fullness
- Network load classification
Bitaxe monitoring
Your lottery miner, on the same screen.
- Hashrate & temperature
- Share acceptance
- Mining status & health
Privacy Mode
One click and the numbers disappear.
- Hide balances & amounts
- Redacted diagnostics
- Masked hosts & endpoints
ElectrumX support
Realtime wallet data from your own indexer.
- ElectrumX / electrs compatible
- Live header subscription
- TLS or tunneled transport
Screenshots
Calm by default. Detailed on demand.
Designed for the glance you give it every morning — and the depth you occasionally need.
Dashboard
Balance, node health and mempool in one view
Wallet view
Watch-only history, confirmations, DCA streak
Node view
Peers, sync, blocks and freshness
Settings
Transport policy, privacy and profiles
Bitaxe view
Hashrate, temperature, shares
Why watch-only wallets
Seeing your bitcoin and moving it are two different jobs.
A monitoring app has no business holding keys. Watch-only isn't a limitation here — it's the entire point of the design.
What it means
Public data only
You give the app a public output descriptor or an xpub. From that it derives your addresses and asks your node about them. No private key is ever received, generated or stored.
Why it matters
Nothing worth stealing
If this Mac were compromised, an attacker would gain a view of your balance — not the ability to move it. There is no signing code to exploit, no PSBT flow to hijack, no broadcast path to abuse.
How it's enforced
Checked, not promised
Every connected wallet is verified through your node's getwalletinfo. If private keys ever appear on a wallet, the app halts polling and warns you instead of continuing.
Security philosophy
The safest feature is the one that doesn't exist.
Bitcoin Core Monitor is built by removing capabilities, not adding them. It cannot spend, sign, or broadcast — so a compromise of the app can never become a compromise of your bitcoin.
- No private keys. The app only ever sees public descriptors. Keys stay on your hardware wallet.
- No transaction signing or broadcasting. There is no spend path in the codebase. By design, not by policy.
- No cloud dependency. No backend, no sync service, no server to trust — or to breach.
- No account creation. Nothing to sign up for. Nothing to leak.
- No tracking, no analytics. The app sends no telemetry. This website loads no third-party resources.
Built for self-custody
Your keys stay on the hardware they live on.
“Bitcoin belongs on hardware wallets, not in software wallets.”
That conviction shaped every line of this app. A monitoring tool should let you see your bitcoin without ever being able to touch it. Bitcoin Core Monitor watches addresses derived from the public descriptors of your signing devices — Jade, Ledger, or any descriptor-based wallet — while the keys never leave the hardware they live on. If this Mac were stolen, infected, or seized tomorrow, your bitcoin would be exactly as safe as it was yesterday.
Privacy by design
Your addresses are nobody else's business.
Most Bitcoin dashboards learn your balance because you tell them. This one can't — the only server that sees your addresses is the one you run yourself.
Full details are in the privacy policy.
- Your node is the only oracle. Address and balance queries go to your own Bitcoin node or your own Electrum server — never to a public explorer.
- Credentials stay in the Keychain. RPC details are stored device-only, never in plain configuration files.
- Privacy Mode is one click away. Balances, diagnostics, hosts and endpoints are hidden or redacted on demand — useful on a shared screen.
- Price data comes from public APIs. Market price information is retrieved from public data providers. Your node and wallet data are not sent to these services.
- This website is quiet too. No cookies, no analytics, no hosted fonts, no third-party requests of any kind.
Supported technologies
Built to fit the stack you already run.
A Bitcoin node is required. Everything else is optional — and everything else is yours.
Required
Bitcoin Core or Bitcoin Knots
Connects to your own bitcoind over RPC using read-only methods. Block height, peers, sync and verification progress, mempool state and fee estimates all come from your node.
Optional
ElectrumX and electrs
JSON-RPC over TCP or TLS with a live header subscription, for realtime watch-only wallet data from an indexer you host yourself.
Optional
Bitaxe
Hashrate, temperature, share acceptance and overall mining health from a Bitaxe miner on your own network.
Watch-only import
Hardware wallets
Public output descriptors or xpubs from descriptor-based signing devices such as Blockstream Jade and Ledger. The keys never leave the device.
Node distributions
Umbrel, Start9, RaspiBolt
Anything that exposes Bitcoin RPC works — a packaged node distribution or a machine you assembled and configured yourself.
Remote access
WireGuard
Monitor a node at home from elsewhere over your own tunnel. A strict transport policy blocks non-loopback plaintext unless you explicitly allow it.
Technical highlights
No marketing. Just the facts.
- Native macOS
- SwiftUI app. No Electron, no web wrapper.
- Swift 6
- Strict concurrency checking, complete mode.
- App Sandbox
- Single entitlement: outbound network client.
- Bitcoin RPC
- Read-only methods against your own node — Bitcoin Core or Bitcoin Knots.
- ElectrumX / electrs
- JSON-RPC over TCP or TLS, live header subscription.
- WireGuard compatible
- Remote monitoring over your own tunnel.
- macOS Keychain
- Credentials stored device-only, never in plain files.
- Watch-only enforced
- Wallets verified via getwalletinfo; polling halts if keys appear.
- Output descriptors
- Modern descriptor wallets, not legacy xpub hacks.
- Strict transport policy
- Non-loopback plaintext blocked unless explicitly allowed.
- 390+ unit tests
- Transport policy, parsers and wallet safety covered.
FAQ
Questions a Bitcoiner would actually ask.
Does the app store private keys?
No — and it can't. The app imports only public output descriptors and verifies with your node that every wallet has private keys disabled. If a connected wallet ever stops being watch-only, the app pauses polling and warns you.
Can I spend bitcoin with it?
No. There is no signing, no PSBT support, and no broadcast capability anywhere in the codebase. Spending stays where it belongs: on your hardware wallet and the software you've chosen for it.
Is Bitcoin Core Monitor a wallet?
It is a viewer, not a wallet. It can display balances, transaction history and confirmations for addresses derived from your public descriptors, but it cannot hold funds, sign a transaction or send one.
Does it require a cloud account?
No. There is no account, no login, no backend. The app talks to your node, your ElectrumX server and your Bitaxe — all infrastructure you control.
Does it support hardware wallets?
Yes, watch-only. You import the public descriptors or xpubs from devices like Blockstream Jade or Ledger. The app monitors the addresses; the keys never leave the device.
Does the app need to run on the same machine as my node?
No. The app runs on your Mac and connects to your node over your local network, or remotely over your own WireGuard tunnel. The node can live on a separate machine such as a Raspberry Pi or a home server.
Can I use it remotely?
Yes, over your own WireGuard tunnel. The app detects the tunnel and applies a strict transport policy: RPC credentials are never sent over untrusted networks without your explicit consent.
What does the app connect to?
Your Bitcoin node, your ElectrumX or electrs server, and optionally your Bitaxe miner. Market price data is fetched from public APIs — those requests carry no wallet, address or node data.
Does it work with Umbrel, Start9 or RaspiBolt?
Yes. If your node exposes Bitcoin RPC and, optionally, an Electrum server, it works — locally or over your VPN. Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots both qualify.
Why not just use a block explorer?
Because pasting your addresses into someone else's website links your identity, your IP and your balance in someone else's database. Your node already knows everything an explorer does — without telling anyone.
Is it open about what it does on the network?
Yes. The documentation includes a threat model listing every external call the app can make, and the diagnostics panel shows connection state in real time. Privacy Mode additionally redacts hosts and endpoints from view.
Is this a trading app?
No. No exchange integrations, no candlesticks, no portfolio hype, no tokens. It's a monitoring tool for people who hold bitcoin and run infrastructure — nothing else.