Bitcoin Forum

I read the paper on the scalability of Bitcoin, and I got the impression that nodes with connection times of under 60Kb/s could slow down updating for other nodes. I run the node for around 8 hours per day, and it's mainly to support my wallet. Am I being selfish, and should I reduce the time that I have my node online? I'm running at a usual speed of around 30Kb/s with 8 output connections and 0 inputs.

Well, it's more a matter of, what's better, a slow node, or no node at all. I will always prefer a slower node. When people have their wallet open they are connected with around 10-30 nodes. If there are a few slow nodes between the rest of the nodes it won't cause much problems for other people. May I ask why your connection is that slow?

One of the projects that I'm involved with at the moment is looking at the facilities for people on the move, or who don't have a stable base for some reason. These include, businessmen, campers, tourists and others with "green" political ideas. Most of the time I'm using McDonalds, libraries and garden centres etc. Libraries don't allow you to use port 8333, McD averages at around 30Kb/s. Right now I'm in a garden centre, and I'm sync'ing at around 300Kb/s - they've got nice Earl Grey tea at twice the price, but no power sockets. :)

Im not sure how it works, but making a "slow node" less useful than "no node at all" seems like a very crappy way to deal with things. I would assume that the devs know this, so maybe we are not understanding how this works. I just don't believe that is the case at all. The more nodes the better network, or at least thats how it should be.

I think it's something to do with relaying transactions. With no input port, I may not be affecting that, but I have noticed that a couple of nodes have blocked me in the past, so they may need faster responses for some reason. I understand that miners use piping, and that probably ensures they get updated quickly. Perhaps someone wiith more knowledge than me could explain it a little better.

Several connection can be made precisely to avoid being hindered by a unique slow node, so it's better have a slow node, as said.

You know you're helping if you have your ports forwarded and can connect to more than 8 people.

I can't do that using free WiFi. I might try to get the libraries to open port 8333 specifically for Bitcoin, but they may not like people downloading the whole blockchain.

You're not helping the network, then.

Even though he doesnt help others with syncing much and can only open 8 outgoing connections, he still rellay incoming transactions thus helping the network with transaction propagation and decentralization. Also more nodes = the original transaction sender IP become more anonymous.

I guess you're right, that (http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/37999/if-port-8333-is-closed-will-a-node-relay-transactions-to-its-peers) seems to be true. Was not aware of that, thank you :)

I've always thought a node should be kept running 24/7. I sure appreciate your willingness to help, and you DO help, we thank you all for what you do, but keep in mind you are not doing much.