Is there any security risk of running a bitcoin node?

[russelbrok]

Will my home network become a target for hackers if I run a bitcoin node or run bitcoin mining from devices in my home network?

Would a VPN help or is it better to run bitcoin node / mining in a completely different network?

 

Again and Again Thank you Bitcointalk community for all your help in my previous Posts !!

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[Helena Yu]

You need to run it using Tor network.

Yes your IP address will be visible to peers that you connect to unless you use Tor. (Tor is recommended if privacy is especially important to you.) However, if you choose to use a clearnet node and you don't want your IP address to show up on sites like bitnodes.io you can run a non-listening node by disabling listening. You do this by configuring with the -listen=0 flag or putting listen=0 in your config file. This way you can't be contacted by nodes you aren't directly connected to. The downside to this is that you aren't helping the network as much and you will typically have fewer connections.

VPN isn't good for security since they store your IP address on their centralized server, you don't have any way to verify if your VPN is legit and trusted.

Running it on different network could increase your privacy for little bit, but it doesn't protect your privacy.

[Upgrade00]

Will my home network become a target for hackers if I run a bitcoin node or run bitcoin mining from devices in my home network?

AFAIK, yes, it's possible to be a target of such attacks, but not probable. There could present some security risk and you will need to take some precautions; as suggested above, run it over Tor network and avoid using VPNs. Also, no one needs to know you're running a nice or a mining rig for that matter, although the latter is much harder to keep private.

it better to run bitcoin node / mining in a completely different network?

If you can, do run it over a different network that services your home. Same way you would not want to access your wallet address and Netflix on the same network and device.

[ABCbits]

Will my home network become a target for hackers if I run a bitcoin node or run bitcoin mining from devices in my home network?

Mining Bitcoin? Unlikely since only pool know your IP.
Running Bitcoin node? More likely since your IP will be known to other node and appear on crawler website such as https://bitnodes.io/.

Would a VPN help or is it better to run bitcoin node / mining in a completely different network?

Both option could work, but i don't know how much security risk could be decreased. Besides, you need to trust VPN provider when we're talking about privacy.

[examplens]

Will my home network become a target for hackers if I run a bitcoin node or run bitcoin mining from devices in my home network?

Would a VPN help or is it better to run bitcoin node / mining in a completely different network?

I would say that every online service carries an increased dose of security risk. I would advise you that if you don't know much about online security, it might be better to give up on that idea.
if you still want to start your node, it is certainly ideal to do it through another network, or at least not the ones through which you do other personal things.

[BitMaxz]

Are you planning tonsolo mine with full node? Take note mining Bitcoin needs ASIC machine to be able to mine Bitcoin and you don't need to have a full node just to mine BTC.
And mining Bitcoin needs low ping and stable internet if you are going to use VPN you will get high stale shares due to high ping.

So if you are going to mine instead of having a full node better use mining pools without VPN(without tor as suggested above).

[dkbit98]

Will my home network become a target for hackers if I run a bitcoin node or run bitcoin mining from devices in my home network?

I don't think it would be very profitable for right now to mine Bitcoin and buy ASIC miners, but in theory you could do it and if done correctly with cold storage backup nobody could hack you.

On the other hand, anyone can and should run Bitcoin node to help network and increase privacy in transacions.
You could use VPN for your node but it's waste of money unless you already have some unlimited vpn plan, so good alternative is Tor that is already free.
People are running nodes on old laptops, raspberry pi devices and recently I saw people who are doing that on old smartphones, so you can choose whatever you want and fools instructions.

[Charles-Tim]

Mining Bitcoin? Unlikely since only pool know your IP.
Running Bitcoin node? More likely since your IP will be known to other node and appear on crawler website such as https://bitnodes.io/.

Never mind this newbie-like question. Some people's location are unknown, are they those that uses Tor or VPN? If using Tor or VPN, you can set it to a country address, the country the Tor or VPN is set to will be displayed as the country set to? This later is how I thought it would be, but how come some location are unknown?

You could use VPN for your node but it's waste of money unless you already have some unlimited vpn plan, so good alternative is Tor that is already free.

Tor is not only free, it is more decentralized, unlike VPN that is centralized, people that route their connection through VPN depends on a centralized server that knows about their IP addresses. If people can run their own node using Tor, I do not see a need to go for VPN at all.

[ABCbits]

Mining Bitcoin? Unlikely since only pool know your IP.
Running Bitcoin node? More likely since your IP will be known to other node and appear on crawler website such as https://bitnodes.io/.

Never mind this newbie-like question. Some people's location are unknown, are they those that uses Tor or VPN? If using Tor or VPN, you can set it to a country address, the country the Tor or VPN is set to will be displayed as the country set to? This later is how I thought it would be, but how come some location are unknown?

When a node use Tor, usually it means they only use .onion address (doesn't use exit node) which prevent Bitnodes.io from guessing their country. And if those who run node with Tor for privacy reason, usually they don't configure their node to accept clearnet connection.

[aysg76]

If we are simply running bitcoin node from our connection without following any security measures then we are always at risk of being tracked by digital footprints so as suggested above Tor is the best alternative for you if you plan to run a full node and help the network.But also keep in mind that you need storage as well to maintain the record of all the transactions.You can have a look at this article for more details.

I don't think it would be very profitable for right now to mine Bitcoin and buy ASIC miners, but in theory you could do it and if done correctly with cold storage backup nobody could hack you.

It would take him long to cover the expenses if he have something like buying ASIC Machine for mining but even if he joins some mining pool sharing his hash power what he will get in share will be small but if he plans to contribute it that way he can try and gain some sats storing them in his wallet safely and when price surge he can have good profits.But if don't want to get traced then he needs to follow the security steps and bumping his IP with these methods.

[Jon_Hodl]

Will my home network become a target for hackers if I run a bitcoin node or run bitcoin mining from devices in my home network?

The short answer is "yes but..."

The long answer is not if you run your node from behind Tor. I run a couple of nodes and they both run behind Tor (Umbrel and MyNode). I am not worried about anything being compromised since I don't run lightning nodes or anything. I only use my nodes to check the balances of my wallet addresses and some other stuff but I think at the very least it's a good idea to run all of your traffic through a VPN.

I would stat simple and then work your way into more complex node functionality like dealing with the command line and maybe even running a wallet out of it. Best of luck.

[pooya87]

You should also keep in mind that when you are running a full node and using it as a wallet, you are essentially using a hot wallet and the same security risks that apply to such wallets apply to your full node too.
For example it is not always a direct attack/hack of your system knowing your IP address. Your computer could be compromised when you visit a malicious website that infects it with a keylogger which would then steal your password and wallet file to gain access to your keys and take your money.