Bitcoin Core considers dropping encrypted routing support as poor node health exposes users to eclipse attacks

Bitcoin Core contributors are weighing whether a thinly used network transport offers valuable insurance or has become a liability too costly to retain.

In the open CJDNS support discussion, Bitcoin Core member Andrew Chow said one seeder database held 25 CJDNS addresses, had reached 22 and classified only seven as good. The issue author, Martin Zumsande, reported seeing only three to four peers even though Bitcoin Core ships with 11 fixed CJDNS seeds.

Those figures have prompted support for deprecation and a suggestion that Bitcoin Core warn users in a 32.x release before planning removal in 33.x. But that version sequence was posed as a question. As of Sunday, Aug. 23, the issue remained open in the 32.0 milestone, with its Development section empty of an implementation branch or pull request.

Bitcoin Core implements CJDNS as optional peer-to-peer transport and address handling, outside Bitcoin's consensus system. Issue #36041 instead asks whether Bitcoin Core should keep CJDNS address handling as a fallback when the thin peer pool may also make CJDNS-only nodes easier to surround.

Bitcoin Core’s seven good nodes capture one seeder snapshot

The seeder numbers describe one crawler's database at one point in time. The global CJDNS population may be larger because the figure covers only that crawler's database.