Bitcoin node - VPN or Tor

[shadowbummer]

Hi all

Im turning an old laptop into a bitcoin full node on Unbuntu.  Is it advisable to hide my IP for security?  If so what's the best way?  It seems that most VPN services are terrible, so should I be using TOR?

[achow101]

Hiding your IP address does not increase security, it only increases privacy. You can use Bitcoin Core over Tor so long as you have the Tor daemon installed. Here are instructions for using Tor with Bitcoin Core: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/tor.md

[Shermand100]

Here are instructions for using Tor with Bitcoin Core: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/tor.md

That's a great guide I've used for helping make nodes.
I like how it's configurable in sort of two modes. Tor only, or reachable by IPv4, IPv6 and Tor. If privacy is the main concern then best stick with Tor only.

I thought it was also worth making yuo aware of

banscore=<n>   Threshold for disconnecting misbehaving peers (default: 100)
bantime=<n>   Number of seconds to keep misbehaving peers from reconnecting (default: 86400)

which can be adde to the     /home/username/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

I've heard it helps prevent DDOS, I'm no expert, but now I'm curious as to how effective it is. Just thought it was worth a mention as you had security as an issue in your first post.

Full list of bitcoin-cli commands here

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin#Command-line_arguments

[achow101]

banscore=<n>   Threshold for disconnecting misbehaving peers (default: 100)
bantime=<n>   Number of seconds to keep misbehaving peers from reconnecting (default: 86400)

which can be adde to the     /home/username/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

I've heard it helps prevent DDOS, I'm no expert, but now I'm curious as to how effective it is. Just thought it was worth a mention as you had security as an issue in your first post.

The banning system in Bitcoin Core is supposed to help prevent DoS attacks, not just DDoS specifically. It does work, but it really is only used for disconnecting and temporarily banning nodes that are misbehaving and sending mangled data, not necessarily attacking you. If you were under a DoS or DDoS attack, the ban system may not be all that effective although it may help a bit.

[Shermand100]

Yeah, I just heard it helps, I wouldn't expect it to be definitive.

I did a little digging on google but didn't find much on how it creates it's "ban score". Do you know? I'm assuming it just rates the quality of information it receives from another node, time stamp, attempted double spends etc?

[achow101]

Yeah, I just heard it helps, I wouldn't expect it to be definitive.

I did a little digging on google but didn't find much on how it creates it's "ban score". Do you know? I'm assuming it just rates the quality of information it receives from another node, time stamp, attempted double spends etc?

The banscore is incremented for each piece of data that is received that an honest node wouldn't be sending. For example, receiving an invalid block from a node increments the banscore by 100, resulting in an instant disconnect and ban for that node for 24 hours. There are a variety of other things that can increase the ban score and its all littered throughout the message processing and validation code.

[AgonyPaid]

Hi all

Im turning an old laptop into a bitcoin full node on Unbuntu.  Is it advisable to hide my IP for security?  If so what's the best way?  It seems that most VPN services are terrible, so should I be using TOR?

I used TOP, but I do not like this browser. Very slow and uncomfortable. If I need to hide my IP, I'm using a program SafeIP
It is very convenient to use, and you can choose any country.

[amacl1n]

If you are setting a node, Tor is the way to go, VPN's are both expensive and not as secure as people think, TOR guarantees your privacy to a big extent and is free to use.

[Ashtville]

Tor offer a better security, higher encryption, no risk of logs and third parties recording and linking your device work as a node + it's free. I tried ibVPN and PIA and Tor is better for everything except streaming and gaming.

[Mirror, Mirror, on the Wa]

Yup, Tor is easier to use and more secure. Probably everyone running a node is using TOR with the whole issue and terrible VPN's

[predic]

using tor is better option.

if you want tor or bitcoin-cli or bitcoind to start automatically when ubuntu restart, you can try this:
sudo systemctl enable tor.service or update-rc.d tor enable
here is the way to start up bitcoind automatically if your ubuntu restarts/reboot:
Configuration files for upstart are stored under /etc/init/*.conf. this one is for bitcoind:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/2d782ab2ce30bf106e34cd3288c9082ac04022f9/contrib/init/bitcoind.conf
so, it should be in your computer here: /etc/init/bitcoind.conf
then run: sudo initctl reload-configuration
sudo service bitcoind start

but generally if you use linux, you can also prevent any process, including bitcoin-cli, to overtake consumption of your CPU and block your computer.

cpulimit is a simple program which attempts to limit the cpu usage of a process (expressed in percentage, not in cpu time).

I just used in debian:  sudo apt-get install cpulimit
but if you can't get it, then:
wget -O cpulimit.zip https://github.com/opsengine/cpulimit/archive/master.zip
unzip and cd cpulimit-xxx
./configure
make
then maybe you need to copy it to /usr/bin

use top or htop to list all processes and find bitcoin-cli, let's say PID is 1234
cpulimit command is:
cpulimit -p 1234 -l 50
this means, bitcoin can use maximum 50% of your CPU.
you can use also the name of the process:
cpulimit -e bitcoin-cli -l 50

you can use tmux to keep proces running in the background even if you close the terminal/console:
sudo apt-get install tmux
tmux #to start tmux session
start bitcoin-cli, I suppose it is sudo service bitcoin-cli start
then you can close terminal running tmux, bitcoin-cli will continue to run, or you can just go out from tmux, bitcoin-cli will continue to run in the backgroung.
you can do the same with cpulimit inside of tmux.
to go out only from tmux: ctrl+b d or ctrl+b :detach