Will you run Bitcoin nodes, when it's illegal to do so? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

lmao, what? you can't stop people from doing arithmetic... the real question is, will you continue running and funding the government when its actions are unlawful? If you fund them does that make you complicit in crimes against humanity, or are you innocent due to being under duress?

6 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 10 Feb 2023

define "illegal" in a Bitcoin world

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @sudonaka 11 Feb 2023

Theft/taxes and Violence/war

1 sat \ 1 reply \ @jgbtc 11 Feb 2023

We probably already commit multiple felonies a day on average without even knowing it. What's one more?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cecil 28 Feb 2023

misdemeanors maybe, if you're commiting felonies, you know it.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @frankj 11 Feb 2023

I think yes, with the right caveats, for example using Tor, I think it's okay to do that. Prohibition didn't stop the drug market, either turn off the Internet or a full node will always be active.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @blockguard 11 Feb 2023

I will die on this hill.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jerrywilliampolley 11 Feb 2023

I’m way out of my league here I don’t even know what a node is? If it’s not hurting anyone then it should be fine right?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BITC0IN 11 Feb 2023

the original tweet of this question: https://twitter.com/BITCOINALLCAPS/status/1623766805700378627

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @sudonaka 11 Feb 2023

Interestingly my answer is no. Because I will be die fighting before giving up my freedom of speech. Supreme court in the USA has already ruled: code is speech. Any attempt to "outlaw" bitcoin means outlawing speech and will illegitimize the tyrants attempting to do so.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @kristapsk 11 Feb 2023

There are people living outside USA too.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @sudonaka 11 Feb 2023

All Americans are stupid right? So stupid to have established freedom of speech and self-defense as God-given human rights? If I am a public figure or under legal challenge anywhere in the world, I will point to the concept of Freedom of Speech and use it to defend my RIGHT to run free and open source code. The constitution in the united states is an example to follow. Not the current tyrannical government, but the concept and tradition of Liberty. Running away from tyrants and hiding is not what we are supposed to do. Stay quiet, but if challenged we must defend our rights for the good of humanity yet to come.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @kristapsk 11 Feb 2023

Good luck in trying to get some liberties by pointing to US Constitution in, for example, Russia.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @sudonaka 12 Feb 2023

I said I would point to freedom of speech as a concept and fight for our rights as humans… what is your problem with my sentiment here?

So far you insult me and suggest fighting against tyranny will not work. Of course it doesn’t always work.

Cowards like you hide in your holes and pick up the pieces after the battles.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @irusensei 10 Feb 2023

Hell yeah. My computing is no ones business. Care must be taken however to never leak your IP address.

I do believe there will come a day when personal computing (access to GPUs, CPUs, cryptography, running your own software outside of a walled garden) will be seen as a potential criminal activity. The only sanctioned computing will be through TOS backed cloud desktops.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @phamtruax 10 Feb 2023

when they ban something, it means you must do it

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Busybe3z 10 Feb 2023

Legacy and fiat days are numbered boys and girls… peacefully making the world a better place

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 10 Feb 2023

I assume this is in response to the bill passed in Mississippi, US, explicitly allowing citizens to run Bitcoin nodes? Definitely an interesting precedent to grant explicit approval for something that wasn’t explicitly prohibited previously.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stefandiamante 10 Feb 2023

Of course. I was born to be bad.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @pi 10 Feb 2023

On a related note...

"UK considers banning encrypted phones"

https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-considers-banning-encrypted-phones

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @satdeck 10 Feb 2023

find a VPS provider that takes crypto and no kyc and your set!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @036644cfc0 10 Feb 2023

yes

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @TheBTCManual 10 Feb 2023

It's already "illegal" do you know how many bitcoin transactions on your node right now were used to buy and sell illegal drugs, weapons and get funds bypassing swift?

So best you make peace with it

5 sats \ 3 replies \ @tomlaies 10 Feb 2023

Idk where in the world you live but I highly doubt that to be true. It is at least factually wrong and not how laws work in all major western countries.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @TheBTCManual 10 Feb 2023

Care to explain how it is factually wrong?

Is there not bitcoin right now in the possession of law enforcement because it was seized?
Is there not bitcoin that has been used to facilitate a host of transactions that would be considered illegal because the trade itself was for certain good or service?
Has bitcoin not been used to clear money that would otherwise not make it on fiat rails due to sanctions?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @tomlaies 10 Feb 2023

You're way to deep into the rambling my dude. Running a node is not illegal in most western countries. That's just a fact.

The reason your bullet list is grasping for straws is that "in dubio pro reo" is still a fundamental principle. I find it alarming aswell that it has been discussed in modern politics - but it is just a fact that at the moment "In dubio pro reo" still stands in the west.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheBTCManual 10 Feb 2023

I'm not saying running a node is illegal, I am saying there's already transactions on every node that could be considered illegal

Governments can make anything illegal, when I was growing up going to the beach was illegal, sitting on a park bench was illegal. Anything can be deemed "illegal"

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @selfish_gene 10 Feb 2023

звучит очень по 18 век! кто тебе запретит? как? ты хоть знаешь что такое запрет?

0 sats \ 8 replies \ @l0k18 10 Feb 2023

With Tor, ofc. Back in 2003 I broke a law restricting access to information on production of drugs that was on the books in my local region. Never saw any result from that.

Side question: is it possible to run a Tor hidden service to allow inbound connections to your bitcoin node? I know support of Tor is quite extensive in bitcoin, this would be a useful feature just for helping the network a little more.

11 sats \ 7 replies \ @kristapsk 10 Feb 2023

Yes, bitcoind will start onion service if it is configured for inbound Tor connections. Also I2P is now additional option, best is to run bitcoind with both Tor and I2P.

These RaspiBolt configuration guides might be useful:

0 sats \ 6 replies \ @tomlaies 10 Feb 2023

What is your opinion on I2p vs Tor? I personally hate it that we can't agree on a protocol - especially since its anonymity relies on number of nodes

23 sats \ 5 replies \ @kristapsk 10 Feb 2023

There is no need to use single network for bitcoind. Single anonimity network is potential single point of failure. More different networks are good here. If possible, adding receiving blockchain data from Blockstream satellite on top is also good.

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @l0k18 10 Feb 2023

agreed, domain names can be resolved by socks proxies so any should be possible to use.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @kristapsk 10 Feb 2023

bitcoind uses DNS only for initial peer discovery when you start your node for the first time. And even if it's not working, you can addnode= new peers manually.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @l0k18 10 Feb 2023

So it would require a firewall redirection to funnel it to use Tor for hidden services. Still??

17 sats \ 1 reply \ @kristapsk 10 Feb 2023

What? I'm not sure I'm following. You just install Tor and configure bitcoind to use it. Then bitcoind will automatically create .onion service for your node, where other Tor enabled nodes will be able to connect to, and you will be able to connect to other Tor nodes (or clearnet nodes via Tor using exit nodes). No firewall configuration is needed for that, unless you have some strict rules that prohibits encrypted outgoing traffic to tcp/443, which Tor uses (to look like a HTTPS traffic).

view replies

0 sats \ 9 replies \ @pi 10 Feb 2023

How would you enforce such a law? Who can prevent me from running a node from my home?

40 sats \ 8 replies \ @humblepleb 10 Feb 2023

I suppose the government could tell the internet service provider to cease service. They tried to do something similar with illegal torrents. 3 strikes and out. Not sure how government could justify or swing opinion against running a node, its not infringing copyright. Hope there will always be some free country to vpn into and run a node. Ecconomic game theory.

3 sats \ 5 replies \ @snakedye 10 Feb 2023

They tried to do something similar with illegal torrents. 3 strikes and out.

I don't know a single place where this is actually enforced.

10 sats \ 4 replies \ @nout 10 Feb 2023

They push it on internet providers. I got email from provider listing specific torrents that they logged and that if there's another case found, my internet will stop. This is long time ago though and obviously you can just use VPN.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Sourcewire 10 Feb 2023

Could they not still recognize the data packets from bitcoin even if you’re using a vpn?

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @nout 10 Feb 2023

They could do statistical and timing analysis and guess that the data is bitcoin transactions. So government level attack is still possible and it's good to have redundancy here...

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @snakedye 10 Feb 2023

They used to try to at least scare you but nowadays I torrent movies regularly without a VPN and nothing ever happens.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @pi 10 Feb 2023

Yeah, indeed. VPN

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @sudonaka 10 Feb 2023

Like they stop p2p file sharing right?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kristapsk 10 Feb 2023

It's hard to totally censor torrent traffic, it's hard to totally censor Bitcoin traffic. Will become even harder after BIP324 (P2P traffic encryption) is implemented in Bitcoin Core. But you will already encrypt traffic if running only via Tor and I2P. What governments force ISPs to do usually is just blocking access to some centralized websites, like The Pirate Bay.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nikotsla 10 Feb 2023

Who determine what is illegal?, what is your opinion to the question you ask?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bskzgbns 10 Feb 2023 freebie

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