A bitcoin full node FAQ

[Foxpup]

Say the node A sends something to you (B) and you relay it to C. Well, if your node wasn't leeching in the first place, A would have had room for another connection: directly to C.

Implying A actually can connect directly to C, which is not always (or even usually) the case. A and C might only be online at different times; C might be a hidden service and A can't use Tor; an evil government firewall might block connections between A and C; or any number of other scenarios may prevent A and C from connecting directly. It is simply not true that any node can always connect to any other node at any time.

[Josepht]

Is one full node in theory enough for the whole network?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Let's say, for example purposes only, there's hidden illegal data embedded in the full node. Could I be arrested for having illegal data, i.e. child porn on my computer even though it was unbeknownst to me?

I know my question may be far-fetched, but humor me with an answer. BTW, in case anybody's wondering, there's a reason I'm asking.

[phillipsjk]

Let's say, for example purposes only, there's hidden illegal data embedded in the full node. Could I be arrested for having illegal data, i.e. child porn on my computer even though it was unbeknownst to me?

Well, it depends which country you are in. If you are in the US, you can be liable for merely linking to infringing content. In Canada, the Supreme Court ruled that linking is not the same as hosting (in a libel case).

Is one full node in theory enough for the whole network?

Having only one full node starts to break the security assumptions of the protocol. Cheating is prevented by "proof-of-work". However, if there is only one node, you have a situation where that node can rewrite the entire block-chain history. To avoid this situation, you probably need at least 3 nodes for an active Bitcoin network.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Let's say, for example purposes only, there's hidden illegal data embedded in the full node. Could I be arrested for having illegal data, i.e. child porn on my computer even though it was unbeknownst to me?

Well, it depends which country you are in. If you are in the US, you can be liable for merely linking to infringing content. In Canada, the Supreme Court ruled that linking is not the same as hosting (in a libel case).

Is one full node in theory enough for the whole network?

Having only one full node starts to break the security assumptions of the protocol. Cheating is prevented by "proof-of-work". However, if there is only one node, you have a situation where that node can rewrite the entire block-chain history. To avoid this situation, you probably need at least 3 nodes for an active Bitcoin network.

Okay, so I'm in the US and am hosting the full node on my computer. The full node is encrypted with all kinds of nasty stuff like child porn and terrorist plots, to name a couple, but only accessible to those with passwords who know it's there. Can a person be in serious trouble for having said on his computer even though they don't access it?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

You are protected by safe harbor regulations, if you remove the offending software you will be fine. Safe harbor is usually used to protected web sites against it's users harming it, but it could also work in a p2p network situation. I would rather a legal expert comment on it and not my monday morning armchair legal knowledge.

I'm not talking about software, but child porn, i.e., embedded in the blockchain but only in certain blocks.

http://www.dailydot.com/business/bitcoin-child-porn-transaction-code/

http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/02/technology/security/bitcoin-porn/index.html

[titan86]

Reading the title I expected to see already posted a bitcoin full node FAQ, not format ask/get the answer

[isidore]

The full node is encrypted with all kinds of nasty stuff like child porn and terrorist plots, to name a couple, but only accessible to those with passwords who know it's there.

What do you mean by "accessible to those with passwords who know it's there"? If you are running a full node then it could be sharing the chain with any other nodes on the network.

[chek2fire]

I like to ask some questions to setup i home full node. I have decide first to setup a cloud node with this instructions

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=582817.0

but i like to setup and in my home a full node.
I have an atom netbook that is open 24/7 and is the center of my mining rig. I like to add there and a bitcoin full node to run parallel with cgminer. I have ask in irc and they say to me that an upload of 1mbps is ok( my line has 2.5mbps unlimited upload). But they say that i have to setup the node to "nolisten". What is the nolisten and what is the difference with a full node server?

[italeffect]

It's fairly easy to run your own node in a VPS if you can follow directions and copy paste.

See here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1se3zd/how_to_create_a_full_bitcoin_node_in_a_5_ubuntu/

Note: The $5 plan no longer is enough HD space to hold the blockchain, you'll need more then 20 GB.

Also FYI: https://bithost.io (They resell DigitalOcean VPS for Bitcoin, with a markup of course)

and text version of steps here: http://pastebin.com/MGu1iBkH


This is my node, based on the above but with some additional modifications.  (running on a DigitalOcean droplet)

http://107.170.201.94/

Click on VNStat link to get a sense of the bandwidth it's using. My understanding is reducing the number of connections and/or some throttling in Ubuntu can be done to reduce the bandwidth usage, if needed.

As a non-programer, I'm perfectly fine kicking $10 back a month to contribute to the Bitcoin network.

Edit: I just spun up a 2nd one in Amsterdam: http://188.226.248.233

[BitCoinDream]

Can I run a full node on a shared hosting ? I have 250 GB+ BW excess per month. Space is not a problem too...

[Littleshop]

You are protected by safe harbor regulations, if you remove the offending software you will be fine. Safe harbor is usually used to protected web sites against it's users harming it, but it could also work in a p2p network situation. I would rather a legal expert comment on it and not my monday morning armchair legal knowledge.

IANAL

No, safe harbor does not apply here.  Safe harbor is for internet service providers and webhosts.  And you would need an easily available contact address for takedown notices.  A Bitcoin node has no such thing. 

Because data in the blockchain is not directly stored and cannot be just any data directly, it is unlikely that there will be anything in it that is illegal AS IT STANDS in the blockchain stored on your computer. 

[Meuh6879]

Interesting, I didn't realize that.  How much bandwidth does that hog?

4 connexions = less than 4ko/s
6 connexions = 5-8ko/s
8 connexions = 8-10ko/s
10-15 connexions = 12-40ko/s

UPLOAD bandwidth.

[phillipsjk]

Okay, so I'm in the US and am hosting the full node on my computer. The full node is encrypted with all kinds of nasty stuff like child porn and terrorist plots, to name a couple, but only accessible to those with passwords who know it's there. Can a person be in serious trouble for having said on his computer even though they don't access it?

As I suspect you know, this has come up before.

The bitcoin protocol makes it awkard/expensive to store more than just simple links.

One of my favorite articles (What colour are your bits?) touches on this:

I think Colour is what the designers of Monolith are trying to challenge, although I'm afraid I think their understanding of the issues is superficial on both the legal and computer-science sides.  The idea of Monolith is that it will mathematically combine two files with the exclusive-or operation.  You take a file to which someone claims copyright, mix it up with a public file, and then the result, which is mixed-up garbage supposedly containing no information, is supposedly free of copyright claims even though someone else can later undo the mixing operation and produce a copy of the copyright-encumbered file you started with.  Oh, happy day!  The lawyers will just have to all go away now, because we've demonstrated the absurdity of intellectual property!

The take-away is that somebody can encrypt illegal data with a one-time pad. There would be no way to verify the data is illegal without said one-time pad. The implication of Monolith is that you don't even need a one-time pad to store data: you can XOR a well known version of the Bible with your illegal content and store the result in the block-chain. Edit: you could even use bootstrap.dat as the not-quite-one-time pad (non-random or re-used one-time pads are insecure).

I am not a lawyer, but after some amount of scrambling, I don't think anybody will care (other than the unprunable outputs wasting space).

Note for those that may not be aware: ko/s stands for "kilo-octets per second", more commonly referred to as kilobytes per second, but the former is more precise. Bytes can be 7, 8, or 16 bits.

[ChuckBuck]

Is running Bitcoin Core wallet on a laptop fully synced to the network considered running a full node?

[DeathAndTaxes]

Is running Bitcoin Core wallet on a laptop fully synced to the network considered running a full node?

Yes.  The Bitcoin Core running on any hardware and synced with the network is running a full node.   If due to routing or firewall issues your node doesn't (or is unable to) accept inbound connections then you are not materially supporting the network. 

[jonald_fyookball]

What happens if I run a node but it's not persistent ...(say I turn off my PC at night)

Will it be any benefit? Will it get delisted as a node?

[jonald_fyookball]

What happens if I run a node but it's not persistent ...(say I turn off my PC at night)

Will it be any benefit? Will it get delisted as a node?

You will just relay transactions when it is on, and you can't delisted as a node, because once you connect to a node, your node's ip is relayed to other nodes to connect to you.

What if I connect once and never return.  How long are those nodes gonna try to ping me before I fall off their list?

[gweedo]

What happens if I run a node but it's not persistent ...(say I turn off my PC at night)

Will it be any benefit? Will it get delisted as a node?

You will just relay transactions when it is on, and you can't delisted as a node, because once you connect to a node, your node's ip is relayed to other nodes to connect to you.

What if I connect once and never return.  How long are those nodes gonna try to ping me before I fall off their list?

Well once those nodes that have your ip can't connect to you, they will not relay your ip. Remember your ip is only relayed if you relay transactions so if you have a firewall blocking that or you have

Code:

listen=0

in your bitcoin.conf. Then you can only connect to clients, your ip will not be relayed.

[jonald_fyookball]

So then, a node can come and go as he pleases and still contribute to the network?