Any public Electrum servers that don't track/log user data?

[DireWolfM14]

I realize there's no way to know for sure, other than having your own server; but are there any that have at least a relatively good reputation for not snooping on users?

As you said, there's really no way to know for sure.  I see frequently see on server in Electrum's list of servers named "sethforprivacy," and it always makes me think "who is this Seth character, and who's privacy is he for?

Anyway, I set up my own server for public use and you can use it with TOR enabled on your Electrum client if you don't trust me to snoop on your IP.  I also set up an Onion address for the server to make the whole loop private.  In my config file I added setting that keep logs minimal, without logging IP addresses or transaction identifiers.  Of course, you aren't getting access to my server so you can't confirm for yourself.  So, you'll just have to trust me, bro.  

Code:

debug = false
quiet = true
anon_logs = true

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5574491.msg66408050#msg66408050

Code:

# Debug mode - 'debug' - DEFAULT: off for Release builds, on for Debug builds
#
# Specifies that logging should produce extra verbose output, which may be
# useful for diagnostics. This option is the inverse of the 'quiet' option (see
# below). You may specify either 'debug' or 'quiet', but not both.
#
# This option may be specified multiple times. In that case, network 'trace'
# output will also be generated (this is extremely verbose output typically only
# used for development and/or protocol-level troubleshooting.)
#
#debug = false


# Quiet mode - 'quiet' - DEFAULT: on for Release builds, off for Debug builds
#
# Limits logging to the normal messages, without any extra verbose debug info.
# This option is the inverse of the 'debug' option and is the default on release
# builds. You may specify either 'debug' or 'quiet', but not both.
#
#quiet = true


# Anonymize Client IP addresses and TxIDs in logs - 'anon_logs' - DEFAULT: false
#
# If true, client IP addresses and transaction IDs will be hidden from the
# "normal" log level.  The "debug" or "trace" log levels may still contain this
# information in some cases.
#
#anon_logs = false

I keep my Tor browser open, and Electrum uses the Tor connection created by Tor browser. It's quite easy to run through Tor this way. If I close Tor browser, Electrum disconnects.

You can install TOR as a background service to avoid having to keep TOR Browser open while using Electrum.  

For Linux use your package manager, or follow these instructions to add the TOR Project's repo for a more up-to-date version:
https://support.torproject.org/little-t-tor/getting-started/installing/

For Windows go to the main TOR Project Website, download the "Expert Budle" for your system, and install as an NT service, or create a task in Task Scheduler to start the .exe on startup.
https://www.torproject.org/download/tor/

[nc50lc]

-snip- I see frequently see on server in Electrum's list of servers named "sethforprivacy," and it always makes me think "who is this Seth character, and who's privacy is he for?

Whoever he is, although private, he's reputable enough for his server to be included to Electrum's hard-coded server list: /electrum/chains/mainnet/servers.json#L335-L339

He also claimed that he's not logging: sethforprivacy.com/about/#high-performance-bitcoin-fulcrum-node
Another candidate for OP if he can trust this private person.

[DireWolfM14]

Whoever he is, although private, he's reputable enough for his server to be included to Electrum's hard-coded server list: /electrum/chains/mainnet/servers.json#L335-L339

I've seen that list, and notice Seth's presence there.  I was just trying to be funny (and failing,) while providing context to the fact that you never really know who's watching.

He also claimed that he's not logging: sethforprivacy.com/about/#high-performance-bitcoin-fulcrum-node

I like how he has his PGP key and Fulcrum SSL cert embedded on his page.  I may do the same thing once I figure out how that HTML code stuff works.  Or, I suppose I could just upload text files to the web directory and provide links on the index page.

[ABCbits]

-snip- I see frequently see on server in Electrum's list of servers named "sethforprivacy," and it always makes me think "who is this Seth character, and who's privacy is he for?

Whoever he is, although private, he's reputable enough for his server to be included to Electrum's hard-coded server list: /electrum/chains/mainnet/servers.json#L335-L339

Calling it "hard coded" isn't exactly accurate, since many of the server list is from script rather than manually added[1]. I recall only the blacklist server is hard coded/manually added by human, although i'm not sure it's still used today.

[1] https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/3796#issuecomment-361234189

[nc50lc]

Calling it "hard coded" isn't exactly accurate, since many of the server list is from script rather than manually added[1].

I'm not sure about that, but he used "usually" which isn't "always".
Even the developer himself called "server.json" hard-coded servers in this commit: /electrum/commit/400934b77150f8223d0a30e1feb1cc21fc1e597a
That's when he manually added Seth's server in that list.

[DireWolfM14]

Calling it "hard coded" isn't exactly accurate, since many of the server list is from script rather than manually added[1].

I'm not sure about that, but he used "usually" which isn't "always".
Even the developer himself called "server.json" hard-coded servers in this commit: /electrum/commit/400934b77150f8223d0a30e1feb1cc21fc1e597a
That's when he manually added Seth's server in that list.

Are you sure Seth's server was manually added, or were those the changes resulting from running script/servers?  In that issue response linked to by ABCbits, SomberNight said that the script has to run manually.  Anyway, the rest of that post suggests that anyone could have their server listed in the servers.json file assuming the server's protocol is up-to-date and running when the script is executed.

servers.json is generated by manually running scripts/servers. We don't usually add individual servers to it.

We will probably re-run the script at some point before the next release, as the next version of the client is planned to require protocol version 1.2. Make sure you will update your e-x to support that protocol version and try to have your server running when we run the script () if you want to be included in the default list.

Side-note: @ecdsa atm servers.json does not contain onion servers, is this deliberate? I think the script should be run with a running Tor proxy so that it lists onion servers too.

Perhaps ghost43 will show up and shed some light on the subject.

[NotATether]

Just assume that all Electrum nodes collect some form of metadata, even if they just store requests inside Apahe logs, and prepare accordingly by utilizing single-use addresses.

I actually think Silent Payments would largely solve this problem.

[nc50lc]

Are you sure Seth's server was manually added, or were those the changes resulting from running script/servers?

To me, it looks like manually added,
but there's no one who can answer this accurately but the developer who authored that commit.

And it's not always the immediate result of their server.py script, they may add or remove depending on the situation.
E.g.: one earlier commit to servers.json surely is manual due to it being requested by the owner: /electrum/commit/67f3fcfb16f2975aec922a95315be313f3fd8966

Anyways, they call it "hardcoded" in the commit that I've shared earlier.
As the way I see it, it's because they included it to the source code which makes it hard-coded whether the list is auto-generated or partially manual.
On the other hand, if the servers.json is generated by the users using a compiled client or while running, then it's not really accurate to call it hard-coded.

[LoyceV]

I actually think Silent Payments would largely solve this problem.

As far as I understand Silent Payments, it requires downloading all transactions. Unless it's handled server-side, but then the server would know which addresses belong to you. I don't even think you could call it an SPV wallet anymore, and it largely increases bandwith requirements for the Electum server.

For reference:

There were around 100 million Bitcoin transactions in 2021 [1], while Monero only had around 5 million transactions in the same time [2] - a factor of 20 that is not insignificant I'd say, especially when using an SPV wallet. If you open it after a few weeks or months of inactivity, it will have to churn through a ton of computation if such a scheme was introduced in Bitcoin.

[DireWolfM14]

On the other hand, if the servers.json is generated by the users using a compiled client or while running, then it's not really accurate to call it hard-coded.

We can see this is actually the case.  Neither mine, nor LoyceV's server is listed in the server.json file, yet both pop up on the client side.  I see many servers on my client that aren't listed on the server.json file.  It is a bit of a mystery.

@ghost43 is one of the developers, and although he isn't a regular here, he does drop in once in a while.  I'm not sure if this is a big enough subject for him to spend time explaining, but we may get lucky.

For reference:

There were around 100 million Bitcoin transactions in 2021 [1], while Monero only had around 5 million transactions in the same time [2] - a factor of 20 that is not insignificant I'd say, especially when using an SPV wallet. If you open it after a few weeks or months of inactivity, it will have to churn through a ton of computation if such a scheme was introduced in Bitcoin.

n0nce's explanation is essentially how the Monero wallet works.  If you don't keep the monerod running in the background, it does take quite some time to synch the blockchain, and that could be problematic if you're in hurry.  To avoid this for Monero, I keep the daemon running as a systemd service on my Linux machines and as a Scheduled Task on my Windows machines.