Quote from: Steve on December 03, 2012, 04:02:49 AM

We actually evaluated setting up WordPress with a completely separate set of servers and software (including their own cluster of bitcoin nodes). It's just a bit premature for it.

My standard advice for merchants: run at least two nodes:

Node with empty wallet, connected to Internet
Node with wallet, handles all your bitcoin activity, connects only to the other node

Large merchants would be well advised to run multiple empty-wallet nodes, connecting their internal nodes only to those semi-trusted nodes they control.

(Note: free business idea!)

Another option is a semi-trusted "backbone" This is a project I worked on for a first, but did not have the time to build it into a real business. Run a set of nodes, and permit your merchant-customers to connect to these nodes. In an ideal design, you would have multiple layers of security: merchants connect to an internal backbone ("cloud A"), and the internal backbone connects to a DMZ/public backbone ("cloud B") that talks to the Internet.

You would have to consider the possibility of a rogue merchant on the internal backbone, but any payment business in theory does a bit of customer vetting. And even so, it's still got the standard bitcoin level of security... full block and TX verification, etc.