2014-10-30 BusinessSpectator.com.au - China has nipped Bitcoin in the bud

[cr1776]

In the year 2000, Bill Clinton famously quipped that trying to control the internet in China would be like "trying to nail Jello to a wall".

Fourteen years later and, for the most part at least , the Chinese government has managed to pull off what was then deemed impossible and make it stick.

The same phenomenon is repeating itself with the latest digital disruptor de jour, the crypto-currency bitcoin.

Many analysts believe bitcoin is at around the same level of development and recognition as the internet was when Clinton made those remarks.

Recognising the game-changing economic upside to the internet, the Chinese government accepted it, but on its own terms. Bitcoin has followed a similar logic.

... read more:

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/10/30/china/china-has-nipped-bitcoin-bud

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[notthematrix]

Bitcoin has time , the next fiat crises and vbitcoin will be huge!
and has everything in place to take over.

[marcus_of_augustus]

The Internet has centralized DNS, which is how the Chinese govt. (and western ones too) 'controls' it ....

[cr1776]

The Internet has centralized DNS, which is how the Chinese govt. (and western ones too) 'controls' it ....

Yeah.  With namecoin and other TLDs based on sidechains or namecoin clones they will lose some of that control.

I just thought the article was interesting in terms of how totalitarians control people.

[Raystonn]

So... how does the Bitcoin client find others in the network?  Let's protect that from government interception.

[Raystonn]

According to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Satoshi_Client_Node_Discovery, it's apparently relatively simple for China to block it.  There is a list of hostnames to be resolved by DNS and then a list of hard-coded IP addresses.  The hostnames and IP addresses are all listed in the source files, which can be viewed by any government and banned through China's Great Firewall.  We need a method of discovery that cannot be blocked by China's Great Firewall.

Namecoin is a start, but ultimately the IP addresses returned will be blocked by the government if the hostnames are stored in the client's source.  We need something that doesn't use a hard-coded hostname or IP address, and can't be blocked when the algorithm is publicly known.  One example would be trying random IP addresses.  That is grossly inefficient, but would be unblockable.  Let's come up with something better.

[Raystonn]

And... I have a solution.  This Dark Net should work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet.  It has been operational in China for years now according to the wiki article.  I propose we add support for Dark Nets like Freenet.  In fact, I'd argue these should be the default to help protect novices from their governments.

[Raystonn]

Better yet, the Bitcoin client should support a dark net mode.  It currently supports providing a text file of addresses to other Bitcoin nodes.  But it simply adds these to the list of nodes, and still attempts connections to the publicly listed hostnames and IP addresses.  In dark net mode, the Bitcoin client should connect only to the addresses provided by the end-user, and all communications should be encrypted and designed to hide the fact a Bitcoin node is being run.

[ThomasCrowne]

And... I have a solution.  This Dark Net should work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet.  It has been operational in China for years now according to the wiki article.  I propose we add support for Dark Nets like Freenet.  In fact, I'd argue these should be the default to help protect novices from their governments.

There is exactly 0 chance of this happening with Gavin at the helm of development.  If anything, bitcoin is going to be heading in more of a let's change what we have to of the underlying protocol to make this thing scale like a Visa or Mastercard network.  I wouldn't be surprised, if bitcoin manages to stick around for another 4-5 years if it suddenly becomes closed-source at some point.  Although I'm having my doubts that it will at this point for obvious reasons.  Russia, China, BitLicense, Fincen, continual scam's (too many too list), public perception on bitcoin, etc.

[marcus_of_augustus]

So... how does the Bitcoin client find others in the network?  Let's protect that from government interception.

no need to worry, bitcoin has been done right ... noone is shutting it down or blocking it. At some point in too distant future there will be transmitting bitcoin nodes in space, outside of any national jurisdiction.

Every node has a list of IPs from recently discovered peers and selects from them randomly to attempt connections. The list of peers is dynamically updated as nodes join and leave. Also you can configure to run over a proxy, like the Tor network or I2P, Freenet(?).

[Raystonn]

Yes, but the question is one of how to populate your list of nodes when you first start your client.  For those living under tyranny, they need the ability to connect with stealth only to people they know and trust.  This is also known as a dark net.  Nodes that take connections from dark net users and non-dark net users will act to bridge between the two Bitcoin networks.  The Bitcoin dark net is required to allow use of the currency in complete privacy.