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1 | TOR SUPPORT IN BITCOIN |
| 2 | ====================== |
| 3 | |
| 4 | It is possible to run Bitcoin as a Tor hidden service, and connect to such services. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | The following directions assume you have a Tor proxy running on port 9050. Many distributions default to having a SOCKS proxy listening on port 9050, but others may not. In particular, the Tor Browser Bundle defaults to listening on a random port. See [Tor Project FAQ:TBBSocksPort](https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq.html.en#TBBSocksPort) for how to properly |
| 7 | configure Tor. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | |
| 10 | 1. Run bitcoin behind a Tor proxy |
| 11 | --------------------------------- |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The first step is running Bitcoin behind a Tor proxy. This will already make all |
| 14 | outgoing connections be anonimized, but more is possible. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | -socks=5 SOCKS5 supports connecting-to-hostname, which can be used instead |
| 17 | of doing a (leaking) local DNS lookup. SOCKS5 is the default, |
| 18 | but SOCKS4 does not support this. (SOCKS4a does, but isn't |
| 19 | implemented). |
| 20 | |
| 21 | -proxy=ip:port Set the proxy server. If SOCKS5 is selected (default), this proxy |
| 22 | server will be used to try to reach .onion addresses as well. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | -tor=ip:port Set the proxy server to use for tor hidden services. You do not |
| 25 | need to set this if it's the same as -proxy. You can use -notor |
| 26 | to explicitly disable access to hidden service. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | -listen When using -proxy, listening is disabled by default. If you want |
| 29 | to run a hidden service (see next section), you'll need to enable |
| 30 | it explicitly. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | -connect=X When behind a Tor proxy, you can specify .onion addresses instead |
| 33 | -addnode=X of IP addresses or hostnames in these parameters. It requires |
| 34 | -seednode=X SOCKS5. In Tor mode, such addresses can also be exchanged with |
| 35 | other P2P nodes. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | In a typical situation, this suffices to run behind a Tor proxy: |
| 38 | |
| 39 | ./bitcoin -proxy=127.0.0.1:9050 |
| 40 | |
| 41 | |
| 42 | 2. Run a bitcoin hidden server |
| 43 | ------------------------------ |
| 44 | |
| 45 | If you configure your Tor system accordingly, it is possible to make your node also |
| 46 | reachable from the Tor network. Add these lines to your /etc/tor/torrc (or equivalent |
| 47 | config file): |
| 48 | |
| 49 | HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/bitcoin-service/ |
| 50 | HiddenServicePort 8333 127.0.0.1:8333 |
| 51 | |
| 52 | The directory can be different of course, but (both) port numbers should be equal to |
| 53 | your bitcoind's P2P listen port (8333 by default). |
| 54 | |
| 55 | -externalip=X You can tell bitcoin about its publicly reachable address using |
| 56 | this option, and this can be a .onion address. Given the above |
| 57 | configuration, you can find your onion address in |
| 58 | /var/lib/tor/bitcoin-service/hostname. Onion addresses are given |
| 59 | preference for your node to advertize itself with, for connections |
| 60 | coming from unroutable addresses (such as 127.0.0.1, where the |
| 61 | Tor proxy typically runs). |
| 62 | |
| 63 | -listen You'll need to enable listening for incoming connections, as this |
| 64 | is off by default behind a proxy. |
| 65 | |
| 66 | -discover When -externalip is specified, no attempt is made to discover local |
| 67 | IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. If you want to run a dual stack, reachable |
| 68 | from both Tor and IPv4 (or IPv6), you'll need to either pass your |
| 69 | other addresses using -externalip, or explicitly enable -discover. |
| 70 | Note that both addresses of a dual-stack system may be easily |
| 71 | linkable using traffic analysis. |
| 72 | |
| 73 | In a typical situation, where you're only reachable via Tor, this should suffice: |
| 74 | |
| 75 | ./bitcoind -proxy=127.0.0.1:9050 -externalip=57qr3yd1nyntf5k.onion -listen |
| 76 | |
| 77 | (obviously, replace the Onion address with your own). If you don't care too much |
| 78 | about hiding your node, and want to be reachable on IPv4 as well, additionally |
| 79 | specify: |
| 80 | |
| 81 | ./bitcoind ... -discover |
| 82 | |
| 83 | and open port 8333 on your firewall (or use -upnp). |
| 84 | |
| 85 | If you only want to use Tor to reach onion addresses, but not use it as a proxy |
| 86 | for normal IPv4/IPv6 communication, use: |
| 87 | |
| 88 | ./bitcoin -tor=127.0.0.1:9050 -externalip=57qr3yd1nyntf5k.onion -discover |
| 89 | |
projects / VerusCoin.git / blame