Bitcoin Peers | Start9

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]In this video, we'll cover Bitcoin's peer settings on StartOS 0.4.0.

[00:00:05]We'll start with outbound versus inbound connections.

[00:00:09]Then, look at the networks available.

[00:00:12]After that, we'll cover the defaults provided, and finally, learn how to change things with a walk-through of our peer settings.

[00:00:21]There are two types of peer connections.

[00:00:23]Outbound is when your node initiates, and this means finding peers at startup, asking for new blocks, or broadcasting your transactions.

[00:00:33]Outbound is essential. Without it, your node can't do its job.

[00:00:37]Inbound is when the other node initiates the connection to you, and this is for when a new node is bootstrapping, or other peers are relaying transactions.

[00:00:47]Inbound is optional, but if nobody accepted inbound, the network doesn't work.

[00:00:53]Peers see whatever address your node shows up as.

[00:00:56]Outbound leaks where you're connecting from, and inbound advertises where peers can reach you.

[00:01:02]So, it's worth understanding the addresses you're putting out there.

[00:01:06]Bitcoin can connect to peers over a few different networks.

[00:01:09]They run independently, and your node can use any combination at the same time.

[00:01:14]First, we have clearnet, which is IPv4 and IPv6, and what most people just call the internet. It's the fastest and the biggest peer pool.

[00:01:24]The privacy trade-off is that IPs are exposed on both ends of the connection.

[00:01:30]For more privacy, Bitcoin can also use Tor and I2P.

[00:01:35]Both are anonymity networks, but they take different approaches.

[00:01:39]On Tor, your node hides behind a dot onion address.

[00:01:44]Other Bitcoin nodes can find you, but nobody can trace the connection back to your physical location. Your traffic bounces through three encrypted hops called onion routing, before it reaches its destination.

[00:01:57]I2P does the same job in a different way.

[00:02:00]Your node gets a B32 I2P address.

[00:02:04]Instead of sending one message at a time, traffic moves in encrypted bundles called garlic routing.

[00:02:11]And every I2P user is also a router.

[00:02:14]All I2P traffic stays inside the network, and there's no single exit point that any outer entity can target.

[00:02:22]I2P may be slower and smaller than Tor, but it adds real diversity to your connections.

[00:02:29]And each new peer to join strengthens the network.

[00:02:36]Here's what a fresh Bitcoin install on StartOS 040 has running with no configuration changes.

[00:02:43]I2P is fully running, outbound and inbound.

[00:02:47]StartOS includes an embedded I2P D daemon that handles the connection to the I2P network for you.

[00:02:55]Tor depends on the Tor plugin.

[00:02:58]If the plugin is installed, outbound Tor works automatically.

[00:03:03]If not, your node has no Tor at all.

[00:03:07]Inbound Tor is off either way until you add an onion service on your Bitcoin peer-to-peer interface.

[00:03:17]Clearnet outbound is on. IPv4 and IPv6 peer connections are active.

[00:03:23]Your node's clearnet traffic routes through whatever outbound gateway StartOS itself is using.

[00:03:31]Which is your home router by default.

[00:03:34]If you want it to look like something else, you'll have to change something.

[00:03:39]Clearnet inbound is off until you publish a public IP.

[00:03:44]And there are two paths to turn it on.

[00:03:46]On your Bitcoin dashboard, make sure you're in the peer interfaces page.

[00:03:51]The first way to get inbound is from your home connection. Toggle on the public IPv4 address.

[00:03:58]StartOS is going to prompt you to forward port 8333 on your wired connection. So, go into your router settings to do this. And be sure to set the internal IP address to your StartOS's LAN IP. Once that is done, StartOS can automatically detect if it's working.

[00:04:17]If your ISP has put you behind CGNAT, changes your IP address, or blocks port 8333, you're not going to be able to get inbound Clearnet through your router.

[00:04:31]If any of these apply to you, Start Tunnel is the answer.

[00:04:35]Start Tunnel is a virtual private router run on a VPS.

[00:04:39]It has a stable public IP, and it has the ability to port forward.

[00:04:44]Get set up with Start Tunnel with this video.

[00:04:47]To use Start Tunnel for inbound Clearnet is the same as your wired connection.

[00:04:51]Toggle on the public IPv4 address.

[00:04:54]Then head to your Start Tunnel dashboard.

[00:04:57]Under port forwards, click add.

[00:05:00]Label it if you want.

[00:05:02]The external IP is your Start Tunnel's stable IP.

[00:05:06]External port 8333.

[00:05:08]The device is your StartOS server, which should be on your devices list.

[00:05:14]The internal port is also 8333.

[00:05:18]Make sure to test it out. And if you get the green check, you are good.

[00:05:25]The peer settings panel lives inside the Bitcoin's action sidebar.

[00:05:28]And changes apply without having to restart.

[00:05:31]So, let's walk through these settings groups by what they actually do.

[00:05:35]Onlynet is a whitelist for outbound connections.

[00:05:38]If it's empty, all the networks are used. If you check only Tor, your node only goes out over Tor. If you check Tor and I2P, you eliminate clearnet outbound entirely.

[00:05:50]This is how you build Tor-only or I2P-only nodes. If you check all four, it's the same as checking none. And this setting only affects outbound, not inbound.

[00:06:00]To use V2 transport protocol is BIP 324, the encrypted peer protocol.

[00:06:06]It's a tri-state toggle.

[00:06:08]True forces it on, false forces it off, and neutral defers to Bitcoin's upstream default, which is on.

[00:06:17]Connect peer controls your outbound connections only, and it has two different modes.

[00:06:23]Add node is going to add up to eight peers of your choosing on top of your peer discovery.

[00:06:29]Your node still finds peers normally, plus it does its best to connect to the ones you've listed.

[00:06:36]Connect mode locks your node exclusively to the peers you list and disables peer discovery entirely.

[00:06:43]Maximum connections caps the total peers at 125 by default.

[00:06:49]Outbound from peer discovery is going to stay capped around 11 regardless of this number.

[00:06:55]So, the rest of the slots are for inbound.

[00:06:58]You can raise or lower this number if you want to have more or less inbound peers.

[00:07:03]I2P SAM proxy is on by default. Turn it off only if you specifically want to disable I2P entirely.

[00:07:11]Accept incoming I2P connections is also on by default.

[00:07:16]A few of Bitcoin's peer settings are configured automatically by StartOS and not exposed in the UI.

[00:07:22]Things like the port Bitcoin listens on internally and the connection to the StartOS's Tor proxy.

[00:07:28]These are locked because Bitcoin depends on them to function correctly within StartOS.

[00:07:34]And there's one more setting that applies here, and it's in a different spot. Set outbound gateway lives in the StartOS section of the Bitcoin's actions, not peer settings.

[00:07:44]And here, you can route Bitcoin's outbound clearnet traffic through a specific gateway separate from whatever the rest of your server uses.

[00:07:52]Most commonly, you'd point it at a start tunnel VPS. So, peers can see the VPS IP instead of your home IP when your node reaches out.

[00:08:02]And that's it.

[00:08:04]The defaults get you running, but now you know what everything else does.

[00:08:08]This is your node and your rules.

[00:08:10]To learn more, go to docs.start9.com.

[00:08:14]Join the community in community.start9.com.

[00:08:18]Or get live support at support.start9.me.