What's the purpose of running Armory through Tor? Is it only useful once you get to the point where you start sending Bitcoins?

  1. Armory (in online mode) uses a full node. Full nodes relay transactions for other programs on the Bitcoin network, so by running Armory on Tor, you help other people send their transactions with possibly-improved privacy.

  2. Sending your own transactions through Tor with Armory can help prevent anyone from associating your IP address with your transaction, possibly improving your privacy.

Note: Tor and Armory must both be used properly to achieve improved privacy.

  • Is it ethical to do this? I know Tor doesn't want you to attempt to run Bittorrent over Tor because it can't handle the load, wouldn't running Armory anonymously also pose similar problems? blog.torproject.org/blog/bittorrent-over-tor-isnt-good-idea – RootFAIL Nov 30 '14 at 16:23
  • I mean if everyone did this would it slow down Tor browser? – RootFAIL Nov 30 '14 at 16:32
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    @RootFail: the slow down wasn't the main reason though. By design, Torrent protocol leaks your IP Address, this isn't bug it's what makes it work. If you are using Torrent over Tor, you get neither Torrent's efficient distribution network nor Tor's privacy, and you're hurting both networks. – Lie Ryan Nov 30 '14 at 16:35
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    I haven't heard of complaints from Tor administrators. Let's say there are 1,000 Tor Bitcoin full nodes collectively relaying 1 MB of transactions per block plus the blocks themselves at 1 MB. If we further say every node is a hidden service so 6 hops (IIRC) are needed, that's 1000 * (2 * 1MB) * 6 = 12 GB of transfer about every 10 minutes---or about 20 KB/s per Bitcoin-enabled Tor node. If all those nodes are hidden services, they're all doing relay---and I suspect most Tor relays have an upload speed faster than 20 KB/s, so the Bitcoin nodes in this worst-case example are net contributors. – David A. Harding Nov 30 '14 at 16:52
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    @RootFAIL Actually the Tor team have actively welcomed Bitcoin traffic. (source: Bitcoin development mailing list) It will do the Tor network good by bringing more users and more variety of data. – George Dec 1 '14 at 0:16

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