Why are there a large number of nodes near Wichita, Kansas?

[datafish]

If you go to blockchain.info and click on just about any transaction, then click on the Network Propagation map, you'll find a large number of nodes just outside Wichita.  Any ideas why this is so?  A bitcoin-friendly hosting service?  Conspiracy theories, anyone?

[fancy_pants]

If you go to blockchain.info and click on just about any transaction, then click on the Network Propagation map, you'll find a large number of nodes just outside Wichita.  Any ideas why this is so?  A bitcoin-friendly hosting service?  Conspiracy theories, anyone?

having spent a very long 9 months in Wichita,  I'd suggest your candidates are:
- Expat mexican farm workers
- Koch Brothers
- Mennonites
- Air Force
- Scientologists
- Wichita does not dump fluoride in their water

[kiba]

Bitcoin nodes generally corresponds to population map. Have you check the population density of this town?

[Stephen Gornick]

Conspiracy theories, anyone?

Geographic center of "U.S" where no location with greater specificity was available?

[fancy_pants]

A quick google search indicates that there is a company in Wichita called Transtecs that has Navy contracts and an office in Wichita.  The TOR network is brought to you by the US Navy.  There is no water in Kansas.  Translation:  Wichita traffic = TOR traffic.

[BkkCoins]

A quick google search indicates that there is a company in Wichita called Transtecs that has Navy contracts and an office in Wichita.  The TOR network is brought to you by the US Navy.  There is no water in Kansas.  Translation:  Wichita traffic = TOR traffic.

Yes and the US Navy also has a deep water research facility off the coast of West Africa. They're working on the next gen Tor client where all traffic appears to originate at 0.0.0.0 utilizing HSTP (hyper space transport protocol).

[bg002h]

Could Google fiber have something to do with it?

https://fiber.google.com/cities/#header=check

[datafish]

I'm going with Stephen's explanation.  The U.S. NGS has determined (by balancing a cardboard cutout, your tax dollars hard at work ) that the center of the contiguous U.S. is Lebanon, KS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_center_of_the_contiguous_United_States).  Lebanon is 200 miles northwest of Wichita.  By averaging the extreme latitudes and longitudes of the lower 48 states, I came up with Copan, OK, 135 miles southeast of Wichita, as the center.  Google probably uses a slightly different algorithm.

So it's unlikely the NSA has a secret, underground bunker in rural Kansas where they are logging the originating IP addresses of all transactions.  My guess is they are doing that from Virginia.  

[fancy_pants]

I'm going with Stephen's explanation.  The U.S. NGS has determined (by balancing a cardboard cutout, your tax dollars hard at work ) that the center of the contiguous U.S. is Lebanon, KS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_center_of_the_contiguous_United_States).  Lebanon is 200 miles northwest of Wichita.  By averaging the extreme latitudes and longitudes of the lower 48 states, I came up with Copan, OK, 135 miles southeast of Wichita, as the center.  Google probably uses a slightly different algorithm.

So it's unlikely the NSA has a secret, underground bunker in rural Kansas where they are logging the originating IP addresses of all transactions.  My guess is they are doing that from Virginia.  

Yeah, whatever.  I just saw a banner ad from Bold Software on the bitcoincharts site and I think I've figured out why so much bitcoin is flowing through Wichita based servers.
Fact 1: Bold Software is in Wichita.
Fact 2: Bold Software is an online chat provider.
Fact 3: People say and do do things in chat rooms for bitcoin all over the world.

The world's oldest profession seems to me to be a lot simpler than all of that mathematical mumbo jumbo you guys are talking about above.  Cardboard, really?

[Elwar]

Umm...Wichita Kansas is to Bitcoin what Silicon Valley is to the computer industry.

Buy property there quick because it will all soon cost a lot of BTC!

[Aerosmith]

Items: There is this state called Colorado next to Kansas.
Some Colorado savings and loans have a cash management problem.
Colorado has this 700 million dollar industry that has recently been deregulated at the state level.

The federal reserve has refused banking services to some organizations in Colorado allegedly
because their business is focused on a business market that has not been completely deregulated
at the federal level.

Bitcoin can help solve these cash management difficulties.

For people from an area that if made to scale is actually flatter than a pancake just the novelty
of Colorado's unique geological scenery make it a fine vacation destination.
I think some people travel through Wichita with an interest in the deregulated business in Colorado.
Before they get to Colorado they buy some Bitcoin.

Cox communications has a regional data center in Oklahoma city. A major spur runs through Wichita.
Then to Dallas TX.