ya'll should read what asmap is for and how bitcoin uses it.

"While Core’s netgroup bucketing prevents too many peers from connecting from a single netgroup, a single AS entity can control many IP address ranges"

if a single entity controls lots of knots nodes then your node will potentially connect to those ips without knowing. This is the eclipse attack.

asmap just adds more information so that core can try to avoid connecting to ips controlled by the same ASN (like a bunch of cloud nodes).

If before I was connecting to mostly knots nodes and then I turn asmap on and they disappear, this implies people are running a knots sybil attack. it's not technically a proof but it is anecdotal evidence.

some people running larger node statistics are seeing a drastic drop in connected knots node counts with asmap on. I am seeing the same.

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Ok.. So instead of counting the nodes.. You just block them.. I got it now.. Thanks

block the ones controlled by a single entity yes, so its a more accurate sample of real node runners. it appears to be much less (2-3%) instead of 20%. so some scammer is inflating the numbers to convince people that users are running knots.

honestly could be a state level actor at this point, who knows.

Sooo all the nodes on aws are controlled by the same scammer? Even the bitcoin core nodes? I'm sure core nodes are also hosted there too.

all I'm saying is that banning aws nodes and turning on asmap, you get a more accurate sample of non-corporate entities running nodes. like people running nodes in their own house, etc.

your peers are just a statistic sample. if you are getting eclipse attacked your view of the network and the nodes that are running will be less accurate.

What is your response to the CSAM mempool relay concern @jb55

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7asu_ZyGNQE

why do people keep linking me this scammer, go read stuff by people who actually understand how bitcoin works, like this very informative answer by sipa

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/127903

"Speaking for myself, I hope you believe me when I say that is not the motivation at all. I think these use cases are temporary hype cycles, and not rational use of blockchain space, but the market can stay irrational for a long time. However, I believe that attempts to discourage these use cases through node relay policy, in the presence of widespread evidence that miners accept these transactions anyway, are ineffective, akin to making nodes bury their heads in the sand, and ultimately harmful to the decentralization of the system at large."

How is it harmful to decentralization if we set our own mempool relay policy?

How does changing the default settings to relay bigger op_returns NOT increase the potential for images to be relayed?

Don't see anything new in this answer.

Because the folks who want to issue junk on the chain opt to go to specific miners directly to include their junk. These specific miners then outperform smaller miners due to the fees they receive in this manner β€” rinse and repeat this be behavioural pattern and soon we have centralization of mining.

The reason why they go about this way is because if they just send their non-standard txs to the mempool of their nodes the propagation path for remain scarce because of the data carrier limit. This limitation feeds this behaviour.

....please continue your logic....

the current default setting- (filters)

feeds behavior- (special action/cost required to publish spam)

=

Solution: change the default setting so it is easier to publish spam.

****

It seems very odd you leaving a real risk here: miner centralization. Focus on what's important.

More spam doesn't help petahash miners to solo mine.

Filters provide greedy miners that put profits above Bitcoin's network health an edge β€” that's the real attack vector worth everyone's attention.

thanks to mara slipstream- created by anti-knots activist PortlandHodl. Any other examples?

That's a precedent that will only multiply if propagation path remains scarce; meanwhile, junk hype cannot sustain itself by constantly outbidding standard use case. I'm as anti-junk as you but I try to look at things objectively.

If PortlandHodl didn't literally create slipstream, you wouldn't have this argument in favor of less restrictions on spam. Awfully convenient, or are you still intellectualizing?

This was a great read, thanks for sharing

This is a good link, thanks for sharing.

A very sober take from the responder β€” my respect.

Yes, also look what happened to bsv... A great if not perfect example of why not to run core 30

regardless of whether they're core nodes or knots cores, connecting to AWS nodes only disadvantages you

I'm just trying to understand what you are saying.. A quarter of the current reachable bitcoin nodes are on aws.

right, so when I collect data from peers on my node, aws nodes wouldn't be included in the stats. the point is to get a better sample of real people running nodes.

It doesn't matter if I'm a robot running a node... A node is a node.

simply not true. a government could spawn 100,000 nodes, does that change what bitcoin is? of course not.

They could.. But then.. They would be supporting the network. Which I would love to see the day

adding 100,000 does not support the network. it is an eclipse attack.

Hmmmm... Why doesn't Russia and China do this attack if its easy.

They are way more anti-crypto than usa

The hard part is ginning up the useful edyoots

what is your response to the CSAM issue

my response is everything sipa said

Same as Mathew Kratter

You are too patient

πŸ˜…

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Could be the individual I overheard scheming to inflate the node count numbers not too long ago right before the knots count started to spike. πŸ€”

Node count is a largely irrelevant vanity metric. Best to ignore.

Are you a state actor?

Like switching to knots were really that difficult for umbrel/start9 users πŸ™„

FWIW it’s not quite so simple. It’s really gonna bias towards small ISPs. Comcast may have 300 nodes but you’re gonna bias towards the nodes on random networks across the world or small hosting providers with one node. I do agree that it’s a better sample (mostly cause it’ll also bias away from OVH/GCloud/Hetzner), but I’m not sure it’s great either.

yes this thought came to me. I was also thinking what would happen if you spun up 100,000 core nodes behind tor. asmap wouldn’t help you here.

I thought the node pick randomly from the AS list you put in. If your list is not complete that might explain the drop. πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ

Wow, this is super interesting! 🌟 I love learning about how ASMap helps keep our Bitcoin connections safer. It's amazing how tech evolves to protect us better. Keep sharing these insights! πŸ™ŒπŸ’‘ #Bitcoin