<p>The top answer here isn't very good. The idea that a motivated regulatory infrastructure intent on banning Bitcoin would be permanently thwarted by VPN connections is very wishful thinking.</p>
<p>Is every end user with a wallet also supposed to use VPN connections?</p>
<p>It also wouldn't be much of a challenge for regulators to target the increasingly centralized mining operations and shut down their VPNs.</p>
<p>The fact of the matter remains: a sufficiently motivated government could probably very easily ban, and certainly massively disrupt, the Bitcoin network if they wanted to. This is one of the primary concerns with the protocol, and the idea that it could ever be used to protect you in a serious financial crisis is probably wishful thinking by people who don't understand how centralized the routing infrastructure of the internet truly is.</p>
<p>Basically, a small number of ISPs already control the internet, and through packet inspection and other means, they could very easily shut down the Bitcoin network for 99.99% of users if ordered to do so.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-19T21:07:02.140Z
2024-02-19T21:08:06.923Z
2024-02-19T21:08:06.923Z
Atta
<p>Banning peer to peer networks is very difficult in general.</p>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>Assuming a node is starting for the first time, I believe it uses DNS seeds to find peers. If those DNS seeds are blocked, is it possible to prevent bitcoin node discovery ?</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>This is possible but all you need in order to bypass it is one IP address of one peer and then you can connect to it manually and join the network</p>
<blockquote>
<ol start="2">
<li>Is it possible to block certain ports to avoid bitcoin communication ?</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>Again that's possible but easily circumvented by changing the default ports</p>
<blockquote>
<ol start="3">
<li>Any other ways ISPs can detect bitcoin traffic ?</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>Peer traffic is not encrypted so ISPs can flag bitcoin traffic by performing some inspection on the data being sent. But again this is bypassed by using a VPN or TOR.</p>
<p>Another way someone might try to stop you is blocking your internet access completely but this can be circumvented too because bitcoin is accessible via satellite, all you need is a dish and you don't rely on your ISP any more.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-25T00:18:01.590Z
2021-05-26T21:32:44.840Z
2021-05-26T21:32:44.840Z
Mike D
<p>Bitcoin is just a software running on a computer communicating securely with peers on the internet.</p>
<p>What will it take purely in technical terms to ban Bitcoin nodes from communicating with the network?</p>
<ol>
<li>Assuming a node is starting for the first time, I believe it uses DNS seeds to find peers. If those DNS seeds are blocked, is it possible to prevent bitcoin node discovery ?</li>
<li>Is it possible to block certain ports to avoid bitcoin communication ?</li>
<li>Any other ways ISPs can detect bitcoin traffic ?</li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-25T08:36:04.213Z
If these hard-coded seed values are blocked, it's easy to provide fresh input in bitcoin.conf. I'm sure you will find many seeds online to use. Also, you can run Bitcoin Core purely over Tor. So you would have to block Tor as well to catch that. And then, there is the Blockstream satellite service. It really depends on how serious you are on banning it and what escape routes the community has left and will invent.
Martin Schwarz
<network><nodes>
Is it possible to restrict Bitcoin's network traffic?
John Smith
# Is it possible to restrict Bitcoin's network traffic?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-05-24)

Bitcoin is just a software running on a computer communicating securely with peers on the internet.

What will it take purely in technical terms to ban Bitcoin nodes from communicating with the network?

1. Assuming a node is starting for the first time, I believe it uses DNS seeds to find peers. If those DNS seeds are blocked, is it possible to prevent bitcoin node discovery ?
2. Is it possible to block certain ports to avoid bitcoin communication ?
3. Any other ways ISPs can detect bitcoin traffic ?

**Tags:** network, nodes

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: If these hard-coded seed values are blocked, it's easy to provide fresh input in bitcoin.conf. I'm sure you will find many seeds online to use. Also, you can run Bitcoin Core purely over Tor. So you would have to block Tor as well to catch that. And then, there is the Blockstream satellite service. It really depends on how serious you are on banning it and what escape routes the community has left and will invent.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2021-05-25. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

Banning peer to peer networks is very difficult in general.

> 1. Assuming a node is starting for the first time, I believe it uses DNS seeds to find peers. If those DNS seeds are blocked, is it possible to prevent bitcoin node discovery ?

This is possible but all you need in order to bypass it is one IP address of one peer and then you can connect to it manually and join the network

> 2. Is it possible to block certain ports to avoid bitcoin communication ?

Again that's possible but easily circumvented by changing the default ports

> 3. Any other ways ISPs can detect bitcoin traffic ?

Peer traffic is not encrypted so ISPs can flag bitcoin traffic by performing some inspection on the data being sent. But again this is bypassed by using a VPN or TOR.

Another way someone might try to stop you is blocking your internet access completely but this can be circumvented too because bitcoin is accessible via satellite, all you need is a dish and you don't rely on your ISP any more.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2024-02-19. Score: 0

The top answer here isn't very good. The idea that a motivated regulatory infrastructure intent on banning Bitcoin would be permanently thwarted by VPN connections is very wishful thinking.

Is every end user with a wallet also supposed to use VPN connections?

It also wouldn't be much of a challenge for regulators to target the increasingly centralized mining operations and shut down their VPNs.

The fact of the matter remains: a sufficiently motivated government could probably very easily ban, and certainly massively disrupt, the Bitcoin network if they wanted to. This is one of the primary concerns with the protocol, and the idea that it could ever be used to protect you in a serious financial crisis is probably wishful thinking by people who don't understand how centralized the routing infrastructure of the internet truly is.

Basically, a small number of ISPs already control the internet, and through packet inspection and other means, they could very easily shut down the Bitcoin network for 99.99% of users if ordered to do so.


---

