Bitcoin Hostile Node Attack?

Bitcoin Hostile Node Attack?

this is Matthew crder from Bitcoin
University today I want to talk about a
Bitcoin hostile node attack this is a
question I’ve been getting a lot
frequently what would happen if some
enemy actor like the US government Black
Rock China Russia ship coiners whoever
it is what would happen if they spun up
500,000 new Bitcoin nodes and then use
them to try to print more Bitcoin to
increase the 21 million cap to try to
attack the Bitcoin Network to vote to
change Bitcoin or something like this I
think it’s a good question what is a
Bitcoin node it’s a computer that runs
Bitcoin software in order to check that
the consensus rules of Bitcoin are being
followed these are rules like for
example has this chunk of Bitcoin has
this utxo been spent before if so you
cannot spend it again because you can’t
have good money if the same money can be
spent twice is the minor trying to
collect a block subsidy greater than
3.125 Bitcoin this is another thing
that’s very important after the having
to verify that miners aren’t trying to
collect more money than they are owed
does this block exceed the allowed data
size or does it contain stuff that I
don’t want it to contain so anyone can
spin up a node on a Raspberry Pi or an
old laptop by downloading the Bitcoin
core software and running it we’ll talk
more about that at the end of this video
special note here we’re talking about
Bitcoin nodes not Bitcoin miners who use
a different kind of computer called an
Asic for their mining or hashing if
you’re finding this video helpful I just
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video with a friend so this is the map
of all the reachable Bitcoin nodes we
can see they’re found all over the world
on every continent those are reachable
nodes if you take a look at the total
number of nodes including unreachable
nodes you end up with something
according to bit nodes here it’s 63,000
64,000 nodes I’ve seen estimates in
excess of 100,000 nodes but this at
least gives us an idea of how many
Bitcoin nodes are currently being run in
the world and so if someone spun up
500,000 nodes that would obviously be a
huge percentage increase but the real
question is does having more Bitcoin
nodes give you more power over the
network so for example if I personally
decide to run five nodes instead of just
one node would that give me five votes
on the network and the answer is no
because Bitcoin is not a democracy at
least not in the strict sense for
example if 20% of the nodes want to keep
the maximum Supply at 21 million and
then we have 80% of the nodes wanting to
increase the maximum Supply to 22
million coins those Supply increasers
cannot force the traditional nodes who
want to run the 21 million Bitcoin
software they cannot force these
traditional nodes to change change the
software that they’re running on their
own machines to increase the max Supply
so what happens is these Supply
increasers who want 22 million Bitcoin
they just end up running their own
modified version of the software while
you and I would keep running the
traditional version of Bitcoin that
includes the 21 million million Max
Supply cap now this would be what’s
called a network Fork there would be now
two different Bitcoin networks with
different Max Supply caps and you’d have
to pick which network you wanted to be
part of I know which one I would pick
why would you and I want to keep running
the original 21 million version that’s
because running the 22 million Max
Supply cap version would create an extra
million Bitcoin which would dilute our
holding so if I previously held 1
million Bitcoin 4.76 2% of the total
Supply and ran the new software that
increased the supply cap to 22 million
in that case then I would now own only
4.54 5% of the total Bitcoin and I would
have diluted myself down from point 4.76
2% so by changing the software to the 22
million version I would have diluted my
own wealth and there’s obviously very
strong reasons why economic actors would
never want to do something like this but
this really leads us to the Crux of the
matter which is that running a Bitcoin
node only matters if you actually use it
only economic node operators as they’re
called matter so you shouldn’t run a
Bitcoin node just to help out the
Bitcoin Network you should run a Bitcoin
node so that you won’t have to trust
someone else’s node when you send and
receive Bitcoin or check on your
Holdings if you’re not using your own
node and you’re interacting with a
Bitcoin Network chances are you are
using someone else’s node in fact it’s
100% guarantee you’re using someone
else’s node because you need access to a
node in order to talk to the Bitcoin
Network and transact on it so it’s it’s
very important don’t trust verify this
is why you should run your own Bitcoin
node for your own Bitcoin transactions
so if you run a node in your basement a
Bitcoin node but then you rely on
treasur node via your treasure Hardware
wallet and treasure Suite if you rely on
treasur node for sending and receiving
Bitcoin then you are not an economic
node operator you are not a truly
Sovereign bitcoiner and Bitcoin is
nothing really without clubs running and
using their own nodes if we end up in a
world where only coinbase and black rock
and Treasure Run their own nodes on the
network then we will have lost so what
happens if the US government Black Rock
Etc some enemy decides to spin up
500,000 nodes of their own and start
enforcing a new rule set what we do is
we just ignore them and keep running our
own nodes what happens if someone
proposes a Bitcoin software change that
we don’t like we just ignore them and
keep running our own nodes neither the
Bitcoin miners nor the Bitcoin devs nor
anyone else even in a position of power
or influence can force us to change the
software that we run on our own nodes of
course if you’re relying on Treasure’s
node then you are dependent on them and
whether they decide to upgrade or change
their software you really don’t have a
choice you’re going to have to keep
using them if you don’t know how to use
your own node can they make it illegal
could a government make it illegal for
example to run a certain form of
software on your node not today in the
US we running software is considered a
form of free speech that’s protected by
the First Amendment obviously
constitutional protections are
overridden all the time this situation
could deteriorate to the point where
they ban running nodes either in the US
or elsewhere the good thing about this
the good news about this though is it’s
really not enforceable at scale you
could just keep running your own node
over tour you could change countries you
could just keep running that that uh
node and not tell anyone and this would
require the government to go door to
door to try to stop people from doing
this so it’s a very difficult thing to
stop so this this is the basic setup you
have your own node you use some
intermediate connecting software like
Sparrow wallet for desktop or laptop and
you use that to allow your Hardware
wallet to communicate with the Bitcoin
network via this connecting software and
sending signals across your own node if
you’re going to buy a hardware wallet
and all these companies that I mentioned
I’m not affiliated in any way I’m not
being compensated in any way by any of
them my favorite two Hardware wallets
that I use or the cold card you should
be sure to buy these from the original
manufacturers from coin kite itself
which I’ll put a link to in the
description notes below and I also like
the blockstream Jade a lot as well I
prefer the coin card uh the Cod card but
it is more expensive the blockstream
Jade is a very solid product as well at
a lower price point so you need to get
one of those Hardware wallets and then
what you can do is you can download the
sparrow wallet for free this is free and
open source software you just want to
make sure you’re downloading it from the
correct website and if you know how to
verify ify a release there’s some notes
Here uh in terms of doing that to make
sure that you have the version that was
signed by uh the developer that it
hasn’t been changed or anything like
that so you you download the sparrow
wallet software to your desktop or
laptop this is not available for mobile
at this point and then what you do is
you connect your Sparrow wallet to your
Hardware wallet I have two videos here
which I’ll link to in the description
notes below two videos on YouTube the
first one about sparrow and the next one
about how to connect your Hardware
wallet especially your Jade to the
sparrow wallet and then all you need to
do you can when you’re first starting
out you can use the sparrow wallet with
someone else’s node with one of their
public electrum servers but you really
want to get to the point and I’m sure
you realize it at this point you want to
get to the point of running your own
node and connecting to it via Sparrow so
I’ll put this link in the description
notes below as well how to connect
Sparrow to bitcoin core directly and you
all you need to do then is download and
have a version of the Bitcoin software
running on that same laptop you can
either download Bitcoin core also people
are beginning to move over as well to
bitcoin knots which is an alternate
version that still enforces the same
consensus rules but these are the two
major forms of Bitcoin software a really
easy way of connecting Sparrow to your
own node is to use either umur or start
n I’ve been playing around with start 9
for the past couple months and really
enjoying it and so this basically allows
you you you can either buy a server or
or build your own and then what you do
is you run Bitcoin core on that you
connect to Sparrow through the electrum
uh the electrum server uh option uh the
using electors on start 9 which is it’s
also available on umbrell as well this
is something that is fairly easy to do
on your own there’s lots of uh there’s
lots of instructions on the website here
if you want a little bit more
handholding it’s something I covered in
my last live class over at Bitcoin
University premium I’ll put a link to
this in the description notes below this
is a paid version of it where I talk
about start 9 and setting up your own
node and I show how I’m currently uh
running it with sparrow and my own
Hardware wallet so that’s another thing
you can do after you’ve exhausted all
the free resources that I have on uh on
YouTube and I’ll put a link to this in
the description notes below you can just
go to join and you can get access to the
Bitcoin course as well as future live
classes and recordings of the current
live class but either way the most
important thing is to start down this
path maybe check out these free videos
first and start figuring out how to run
your own node and so if we do end up
with a situation where there are people
proposing an upgrade that you are not uh
in favor of you will have your own node
and you’ll be able to resist it if you
enjoy this video be sure to hit the
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thanks allot for watching and I’ll see
you in the next video

Join Bitcoin University Premium:
https://www.bitcoinuniversity.com

Recordings of my live classes:
https://www.bitcoinuniversity.com/courses/93850-live-classes

In this video, I discuss the scenario where an attacker spins up 100,000’s of new Bitcoin nodes in an effort to attack the network.

Such an attack would simply create an alternate version of the Bitcoin network, running on its own rules, and would not affect those running their own nodes.

This is yet another reason why it is so important to run your own node and use it for all of your Bitcoin transactions, rather than relying on someone else’s node.

Not investment advice! Consult a financial advisor.

Maps of Bitcoin nodes:
https://bitnodes.io/
https://bitnodes.io/nodes/all/

My favorite hardware wallets:
https://coldcard.com/
https://blockstream.com/jade/

Sparrow Wallet download:
https://www.sparrowwallet.com/download/

How to set up Sparrow Wallet:

How to connect a hardware wallet to Sparrow:

How to connect Sparrow to Bitcoin Core:
https://sparrowwallet.com/docs/connect-node.html

Two versions of Bitcoin software:
https://bitcoin.org/en/download
https://bitcoinknots.org/

Easy ways to run Bitcoin software:
https://umbrel.com/umbrelos
https://start9.com/

I am not being paid or otherwise compensated by any company or cryptocurrency project that I mention in my videos. My opinion is not for sale. Please do not contact me with any affiliate or advertising deals.

#Bitcoin
#nodes

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