Author: Jeremy Spilman 2013-12-24 08:52:46
Published on: 2013-12-24T08:52:46+00:00
Efforts are being made to map and analyze the Bitcoin P2P network. The current protocol suggests returning up to 2500 addresses from 'getaddr'. It is unclear how clients are expected to select 'far-apart' peers, or if this process even attempts to achieve that. The speed of discovering the entire network of peers may have both pros and cons. It is worth considering how existing Bitcoin node relations and the ease at which peers can be discovered may become a vulnerability or even a service in itself. There is no information on any past instances of applications hijacking or interfacing with existing P2P messages, or abusing 'getaddr' functionality. Therefore, it is unclear if there are any guidelines or suggestions for handling such issues.
Updated on: 2023-06-07T22:59:25.728658+00:00