<p>New clients that do not yet have addresses stored in the addr.dat will use irc as a bootstrapping mechanism.  Even with this limited role, using IRC exposes a weakness: <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses#Cancer_nodes">https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses#Cancer_nodes</a></p>

<p>The IRC bootstrapping will be going away in the future [Edit: as David write, it is deprecated in the latest version], in favor of the dnsseed method: 
 - <a href="http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=24457.msg305424#msg305424">http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=24457.msg305424#msg305424</a>
 - <a href="http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Network#IRC">http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Network#IRC</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-28T20:40:42.073Z
2011-09-28T20:40:42.073Z
Stephen Gornick
<p>They'd have no problem finding peers for several reasons:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Once the client finds a single peer, it can get a list of peers from that peer.</p></li>
<li><p>The client has a built-in list of about 500 peer IP addresses known to be stable.</p></li>
<li><p>The client knows several DNS names (such as <code>bitseed.xf2.org</code> and <code>dnsseed.bluematt.me</code>) that resolve to lists of Bitcoin peers.</p></li>
<li><p>The client stores peer addresses in a local database.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>In fact, IRC has been removed from the Bitcoin client since 2013.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-28T20:26:31.570Z
2015-03-20T04:34:39.070Z
2015-03-20T04:34:39.070Z
David Schwartz
<p>I'm currently learning more and more about the Bitcoin protocol and I`m wondering if using an IRC channel as the source to find your Bitcoin peers is a potential weak link of the Bitcoin network?</p>

<p>From what I understand the channel is hosted on irc.lfnet.org , so if that website was brought down normal clients would be unable to find peers?</p>

<client><development><protocol><irc>
Bitcoin client IRC - a potential network weak link?
ThePiachu
# Bitcoin client IRC - a potential network weak link?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2011-09-28)

I'm currently learning more and more about the Bitcoin protocol and I`m wondering if using an IRC channel as the source to find your Bitcoin peers is a potential weak link of the Bitcoin network?

From what I understand the channel is hosted on irc.lfnet.org , so if that website was brought down normal clients would be unable to find peers?

**Tags:** client, development, protocol, irc


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2011-09-28. Score: 12 | Accepted answer

They'd have no problem finding peers for several reasons:

1. Once the client finds a single peer, it can get a list of peers from that peer.
2. The client has a built-in list of about 500 peer IP addresses known to be stable.
3. The client knows several DNS names (such as `bitseed.xf2.org` and `dnsseed.bluematt.me`) that resolve to lists of Bitcoin peers.
4. The client stores peer addresses in a local database.

In fact, IRC has been removed from the Bitcoin client since 2013.


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### Answer by username_1 on 2011-09-28. Score: 9

New clients that do not yet have addresses stored in the addr.dat will use irc as a bootstrapping mechanism. Even with this limited role, using IRC exposes a weakness: <https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses#Cancer_nodes>

The IRC bootstrapping will be going away in the future [Edit: as username_2 write, it is deprecated in the latest version], in favor of the dnsseed method:
- <http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=24457.msg305424#msg305424>
- <http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Network#IRC>


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