Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Rebroadcast mechanism in Bitcoin P2P network

From: Aymeric Vitte <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2021 15:23:44 +0100

Using the Tor network to bypass censorship for bitcoin can work but is a
very poor solution, the Tor network is very centralized, very small,
watched and controlled, with plenty of features that do not apply to
other protocols than those made to be used with the Tor Browser, Pieter
gave a simple example, that you can solve easily changing the circuits,
the problem remains that you really need to be a super expert to escape
all the dangers of the Tor network, not even sure it's possible unless
you use something else than the Tor project code

Believe it or not, node-Tor is a more than ten years old project (and
not a duplicate of the Tor network), so I know what I am talking about,
different studies of mine show also that the more you try to hide the
more you can get caught, even on really decentralized networks like
bittorrent, unlike another common belief that in such big networks it's
difficult to track/deanonymize peers, it is not

Extra measures like rebroadcasting can maybe add something, but back to
the previous sentence, extra measures can also help to catch/track you
if not well designed/thought

What I am proposing since years, not only to bitcoin, is to use the Tor
protocol independently of the Tor network, and from the browsers also
acting as nodes (not to be misunderstood with the Tor Browser, this has
nothing to do) probably someone one day will understand it

Le 12/12/2021 à 14:38, Karl a écrit :
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 12, 2021, 7:42 AM Aymeric Vitte via bitcoin-dev
> <[email-masked]
> <mailto:[email-masked]>> wrote:
>
>     Indeed, I reiterate that using the Tor network for Bitcoin or
>     whatever protocol not related to the Tor Browser (ie browsing and
>     HS) does not make sense, for plenty of reasons
>
>
> Please cite this.  It is very hard to believe.
>
> Personally, I have encountered network blocking of bitcoin peers, and
> Tor is one way to reconnect with the network when this happens.
>
>
> Regardless, reasonable rebroadcasting of nonlocal transactions is a
> hands-down good thing.  This does not make them anonymous, but it does
> make it a little harder to track their origin, and additionally it
> makes their transmission more robust.
>
> Every extra measure is a good thing, as everything eventually fails.
>

-- 
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