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

[jiamijiang]

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?

[NotATether]

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.

[ranochigo]

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.

[khaled0111]

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.

[ranochigo]

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.

[calkob]

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. 

[ranochigo]

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. 

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.