Running Bitcoin Node As a Full Node and Running Over Tor

[personofnointerest]

I am a new Umbrel Home user and I’m not technical (hence my purchase of the plug and play device). I had no problem installing the Bitcoin Core node and getting it synched and it’s been running great.

However, I am running the node over Clearnet, typically with 11 peer connections. Someone told me it would be better to configure my router to open port 8333 so that other peers can find and connect to the node, as this would help the network and make my node a “full node.”

I sort of understand how to do this, but I haven’t done it yet. But before I do it, I was thinking it is better to run the Bitcoin node over Tor so that my IP address is not visible to outsiders. Is this a correct assumption, or maybe I’m not understanding what it means to run the node over Tor.

I see under the Bitcoin node settings to options that are toggled off. These are :

Connect to all Clearnet Peers over Tor:
Connect to peers available on the clearnet via Tor to preserve your anonymity at the cost of slightly less security.

Incoming Connections:
Broadcast your node to the Bitcoin network to help other nodes access the blockchain. You may need to set up port forwarding on your router to allow incoming connections from clearnet-only peers.

I don’t really understand these options. Should I enable them? If I do, will they actually work, or do I first need to install Tor on my PC or somehow get it running on my Umbrel Home? I tried to get ChatGPT to help me out and it said I need to connect to the bitcoin.conf file and do some sort of configuration for Tor, but I have no idea how to connect to the terminal to access this file. Do I really need to do that?

My apologies for asking these questions if these topics are already covered elsewhere. I just couldn’t find them and, again, I am not technically experienced in software or network configuration. Any help is appreciated.

[smolgrrr]

No problem.
Yes, I would agree that if you’re not having any issues running your Bitcoin node that the best option is to keep using TOR as is (for exactly the reason you specify), which is how it is working right now.

FYI, to move your node to clearnet, you just need to enable ‘Incoming Connections’. The following thread is a good guide for getting set-up if you would like:

@btc_ln

With the latest 24.0.1-2 Bitcoin app update on Umbrel, you can enable several advanced Bitcoin Core options, including opening up Incoming Connections.

As explained in the options it allows you to:

Broadcast your node to the Bitcoin network to help other nodes access the blockchain. You may need to set up port forwarding on your router to allow incoming connections from clearnet-only peers.

In other words, the benefit is that you are able to serve blocks to other nodes, especially the ones that are booting for the first time. You will be actively contributing to the bitcoin network.

There are couple of steps you need to take to enable it:

Step 1
Upgrade your Bitcoin app in Umbrel to 24.0.1-2 through the Umbrel App Store.

Step 2
Find the 3 small dots icon in the top right corner, click it and find the option Incoming Connections and enable it. You will be offered to restart the Bitcoin app to enable this option.

Step 3
Login to your home/office router. You will need to find the instructions for this on the bottom of your router or you need to google it. The process slightly differs on all devices, but usually you need to load an IP in your browser like 168.x.x.x. The default username and password is also usually listed on the bottom. In some cases routers come with mobile apps and you can login with that.

If someone changed the password, you may need to reset (with a button) the router to go back to the default, but be careful not to lose the information for your internet connection while resetting.

Step 4
Find within the router settings an option called Port Forwarding and add 8333 for external and internal ports. Save your settings. Your router will probably restart for the settings to take effect.

If you’re stuck with this step check out this more detailed description of port forwarding for Bitcoin.

That’s it! Let me know if it worked for you!

[personofnointerest]

Thank you!