Are you supporting the network if you hide your node behind Tor?

ranochigo

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Quote from: calkob on May 17, 2021, 04:39:43 AM

NO others, (including clearnet nodes) can connect to a Tor node.

The best why to support the Bitcoin network is to buy and hold bitcoin. self custody it and use your own Node to verify you received it. Wink

Clearnet nodes cannot connect to a Tor node. The DNS won't recognize and route onion addresses as they're contained within the Tor network. You need to have the node connect to Tor via a proxy.

The converse is true, Tor nodes can connect to clearnet nodes.

calkob

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Quote from: jiamijiang on May 16, 2021, 01:18:41 AM

If you mask your node behind Tor for privacy purposes, does that mean you are not allowing your node to be discoverable, which inadvertently means you are not allowing others to retrieve network information from your node?

So in a way this is actually not really supporting the network right?

NO others, (including clearnet nodes) can connect to a Tor node.

The best why to support the Bitcoin network is to buy and hold bitcoin. self custody it and use your own Node to verify you received it. Wink

ranochigo

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Quote from: khaled0111 on May 16, 2021, 12:09:27 PM

In order to fully support the network your node has to be accepting inbound connections so it can relay transactions/blocks to its peers.
Running your node over Tor doesn't mean it can't be discovered or accessed. It depends on your configuration.
Basically, if it has more than 8 connections that means it's accepting inbound connections. You can also check it by running the "getpeerinfo" command.

Actually, it's fine if you aren't. You're still validating and relaying transactions and blocks to the peers that you're connected to.

It'll be more than 10 peers actually. 2 of the are designated as block relay only peers that you're connecting to.

khaled0111

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In order to fully support the network your node has to be accepting inbound connections so it can relay transactions/blocks to its peers.
Running your node over Tor doesn't mean it can't be discovered or accessed. It depends on your configuration.
Basically, if it has more than 8 connections that means it's accepting inbound connections. You can also check it by running the "getpeerinfo" command.

ABCbits

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Quote from: jiamijiang on May 16, 2021, 01:18:41 AM

So in a way this is actually not really supporting the network right?

Only user who use SPV wallet and fake node (usually used to spy on nodes) who don't contribute to network. Even if a full node doesn't accept incoming connection, few people argue they still make contribution because they relay transaction/block between nodes (which are on their outgoing connection).

ranochigo

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No. By default, running Bitcoin Core behind Tor sets listen=0 but you can configure it to allow incoming connection.

By running a node, you're by default supporting the network as you're still validating and relaying blocks and transactions to your peers that you've connected to. It would be even better if you're not restricting yourself to onion-only nodes, as you're able to act as a bridge between the nodes inside Tor and the clearnet.

NotATether

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Running behind Tor =\= making your node undiscoverable. It simply adds a Tor/SOCKS interface for Core to listen on.

Running your node behind Tor only stops other nodes which are not listening on a Tor address (say they only listen on IPv4 or IPv6) from connecting to that particular interface. Bitcoin Core has a bunch of normal interfaces that non-Tor nodes listen on and these are enabled by default even when you listen on a SOCKS proxy, unless these are disabled with -onlynet=onion.

jiamijiang

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If you mask your node behind Tor for privacy purposes, does that mean you are not allowing your node to be discoverable, which inadvertently means you are not allowing others to retrieve network information from your node?

So in a way this is actually not really supporting the network right?

Topic: Are you supporting the network if you hide your node behind Tor? (Read 81 times)