At the start of February we had 10,000 bitcoin nodes. Now we have 8,500 and still falling: http://getaddr.bitnodes.io/dashboard/chart/?days=60 I know all the reasons why people *might* stop running a node (uses too much disk space, bandwidth, lost interest etc). But does anyone have any idea how we might get more insight into what's really going on? It'd be convenient if the subVer contained the operating system, as then we could tell if the bleed was mostly from desktops/laptops (Windows/Mac), which would be expected, or from virtual servers (Linux), which would be more concerning. When you set up a Tor node, you can add your email address to the config file and the Tor project sends you emails from time to time about things you should know about. If we did the same, we could have a little exit survey: if your node disappears for long enough, we could email the operator and ask why they stopped.