It is said that deploying a Bitcoin full node would protect the privacy of my Bitcoin addresses. If I configure a Bitcoin full node to be outbound only, would that be enough to protect me? Do i still need to have a public IP address? (Since no other full node will connect in, do i still need to configure/supply a public IP address?)
1 Answer
It is said that deploying a Bitcoin full node would protect the privacy of my Bitcoin addresses.
Only to some extent. It is true that at least some employees of any business providing custodial wallets know a lot about the person associated with each address in their wallets. It is also true that nodes relied on by a simplified payment verification (SPV) wallet also know more than normal about the wallet holder.
However there's information in the public blockchain which is amenable to some forensic analysis that a sufficiently resourceful person or organisation can use to penetrate privacy to some extent.
If I configure a Bitcoin full node to be outbound only, would that be enough to protect me?
I doubt it has much effect on privacy regarding addresses used in transactions.
Do i still need to have a public IP address? (Since no other full node will connect in, do i still need to configure/supply a public IP address?)
No.
You might want to investigate whether your router supports UPnP and the implications of that.
answered Jul 17, 2020 at 9:04
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Thx for the insight. Can I conclude that if someone running a full node solely for the purpose of "privacy protection", having one behind the firewall with outbound only connections would give me the full benefits (as far as the "privacy protection" is concerned, regardless of its effectiveness), without the need to fool around with my router.– MiltonCJul 17, 2020 at 23:15