Author: Mike Hearn 2014-12-29 11:30:42
Published on: 2014-12-29T11:30:42+00:00
The author discusses the limitations and problems with using DNS for Bitcoin seeding, noting that querying support is awkward to retrofit onto DNS and that it's difficult to provide extra data in responses beyond IP address. Additionally, signing responses is very awkward with DNS, which makes it difficult to upgrade to an authenticated and encrypted network to raise the bar for sybil and MITM attacks. Furthermore, DNS seeds can sometimes get blocked by aggressive networks because they start serving IPs that are infected with malware. The author argues that using a simple HTTP based protocol fixes all of these problems at once. In terms of privacy, the author notes that lists of stale IP addresses are hardly useful to regular people and that network operators can identify Bitcoin users by looking for traffic on port 8333. Moreover, every single SPV wallet already phones home to check for online updates, so the DNS caching issue is unclear. The author concludes that Cartographer is a better protocol overall, and that the benefits of using it massively outweigh the costs.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T15:07:59.987548+00:00