Monday, 14 September 2020

PSA: Enable Tor as a simple way to make your node reachable.

Become one of the 10% of node operators that receive incoming connections.

Installing bitcoin core is easy, and with pruning it really isn't the space sink it is characterized as. Even a modest computer can complete the initial block download (IBD) and become a full node. But what some users (90%) find a bit more challenging, is how to become a listening node. Listening nodes are an important part of the network, and are simple enough to enable. I can think of 4 ways to do it:

Operate on an OS and Network that support uPnP, allowing bitcoin to open the ports for you.
Subscribe to a VPN that allows you to open ports through their service.
Manually configure your OS and network to forward port 8333 and 18333.
Run Tor and direct bitcoin to listen through it.

I'll discuss #4. Obviously #1 or #2 are easier, but require a VPN subscription or uPnP enabled HW. And if you live in a dorm or don't control the network, Tor may be the only free option available.

As a bit of background, bitcoin supports three networks that your node can listen on:

IPv4 - This is the "legacy" internet that most are used to
IPv6 - A not so new upgrade allowing trillions of addresses instead of billions
Tor) - A privacy network allowing encrypted traffic to remain anonymous

Obviously, the more you enable, the better, but here are the basic steps for Tor in broad strokes. If you have any questions post them here and I'll see if we can't help you out:

Download, verify¹ and install Gpg4win
Download, verify², install, and launch Tor Browser
Download, verify³, install, and launch Bitcoin Core
Launch and Admin command console in the directory containing tor.exe
Install the Tor service: tor.exe --service install
CD to service dir: cd %windir%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Roaming\tor
Create and edit a file called torrc with the contents suggested below
Restart tor: tor.exe --service stop && tor.exe --service start
Record the hostname: type .\HiddenService\hostname as <hostname>
Add the bitcoin.conf options suggested below
Restart the bitcoin-qt program
(Optional) Activate the bitnodes crawler at https://bitnodes.io/nodes/<hostname>-8333/

It may take a while for your node to show up on bitnodes. I've found the check button sometimes has trouble with onions. Of course you don't need to do it, but it can provide a simple way to check status once your on the list.

torrc file: (replace c:\windows with the proper path as needed)

```

Change <Service-Dir> to C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Roaming

Log notice file <Service-Dir>\tor\service.log

Bridges may be needed if the Gov't shuts down Tor exit nodes. Get Bridges by

emailing bridges@torproject.org from Gmail (only) and uncomment as follows:

Bridge obfs4 <ipaddr>:<port> <hash> cert=<base64> iat-mode=<n>

HiddenServiceDir <Service-Dir>\tor\HiddenService HiddenServiceVersion 2 HiddenServicePort 8333 127.0.0.1:8333 HiddenServicePort 18333 127.0.0.1:18333 ```

bitcoin.conf file: (entries to be ADDED)

```

Change <hostname> to what you recorded earlier

onion=127.0.0.1:9050 listen=1 externalip=<hostname> discover=1 ```

^Footnotes:

¹ ^{Cert: {Subject: Intevation GmbH; SHA1: c13a65963ad53e78694dd223d518007791a05fe4}}
² ^{PGP Signing Key: 0xEF6E286DDA85EA2A4BA7DE684E2C6E8793298290}
³ ^{PGP Signing Key: 0x01EA5486DE18A882D4C2684590C8019E36C2E964}

submitted by /u/brianddk
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