Re: All bitcoin.org downloaders being tracked when they use the bitcoin-program?
Guys, seriously...
Most p2p networks have this bootstrapping problem. You can tell bitcoin not to connect to an IRC server (start with -noirc) and AFAIK it will use seednodes instead. But in the end, someone can still harvest your IP number as you connect the network. Only friend-to-friend networks don't have this problem. I don't know if you can do this in Bitcoin by only connecting to known bitcoin nodes (since I don't know if they pass your IP to others). Otherwise you will have to assume that anyone who has interest knows that your IP is connected to the p2p network (same in bittorrent, i2p, even freenet opennet).
One way to hide it could be connecting through an anonymizing network, or a proxy, in which case you are not hiding that you are connected to them.
EDIT: I guess if IRC servers go down and the seednodes become obsolete (they somehow disrupted main client's distribution) we can still add nodes through -addnode= or probably download a fresh seednodes list. My question is, can I boot the client this way? Or in other words, does the seednodes list get dynamically updated as I connect to new nodes?
I can't remember that I ever approved that any software I downloaded should be used for this purpose, neither can I remember anywhere that there were any warnings. As it is now, a lot of users can be tracked on this server, and a lot of information can be extracted, such as ip-adresses.
What happens when this centralized server goes down? And isn't the whole point of Bitcoin to be desentralized with no hub that any government or malicious hackers can attack and shut down?
What happens when this centralized server goes down? And isn't the whole point of Bitcoin to be desentralized with no hub that any government or malicious hackers can attack and shut down?
Most p2p networks have this bootstrapping problem. You can tell bitcoin not to connect to an IRC server (start with -noirc) and AFAIK it will use seednodes instead. But in the end, someone can still harvest your IP number as you connect the network. Only friend-to-friend networks don't have this problem. I don't know if you can do this in Bitcoin by only connecting to known bitcoin nodes (since I don't know if they pass your IP to others). Otherwise you will have to assume that anyone who has interest knows that your IP is connected to the p2p network (same in bittorrent, i2p, even freenet opennet).
One way to hide it could be connecting through an anonymizing network, or a proxy, in which case you are not hiding that you are connected to them.
EDIT: I guess if IRC servers go down and the seednodes become obsolete (they somehow disrupted main client's distribution) we can still add nodes through -addnode= or probably download a fresh seednodes list. My question is, can I boot the client this way? Or in other words, does the seednodes list get dynamically updated as I connect to new nodes?