Stephan Livera Podcast Bitcoin Network Monitoring with B10C | SLP707
Dec 19, 2025
B10C dives into the crucial topic of censorship resistance in Bitcoin and the filtering practices of mining pools. He introduces the Peer Observer project designed to monitor the network for anomalies and attacks. The conversation touches on the implications of OFAC sanctions and how different pools affect transaction inclusion. They emphasize the importance of community collaboration in network operations and explore innovative monitoring techniques, including passive honeypots and compact block relay, to enhance network resilience.
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Mining Pools Can Filter Transactions
- Mining pools can and do filter transactions, which undermines assumptions about censorship resistance.
- Monitoring which pools include or exclude OFAC-listed transactions reveals real-world filtering behavior.
Different Pool Names, Same Block Template
- Many pools advertise different names but may use the same block template under the hood.
- Identical Merkle branches across pools indicate proxied or single-template block production.
Honeypot Nodes Reveal Unknown Attacks
- Passive ‘honeypot’ nodes capture anomalies by behaving like normal nodes and logging attacks.
- Diverse node setups (Tor, I2P, bloom filters) increase coverage for unknown attack vectors.