<rucknium> selsta (I think) has replaced the old DNS-based ban list with version 2 of the MRL ban list: nslookup.io/domains/blocklist.moneropulse.se/dns-records

<rucknium> This ban list can be enabled on your node with the --enable-dns-blocklist startup flag. Thanks, selsta!

<rucknium> I noticed a huge increase in the number of nodes using the MRL ban list: moneronet.info

<rucknium> I think it's just the nodes that have the DNS ban list enabled, now getting the updated list.

<boog900> thanks selsta 🙏

I asked for it to be updated, I don't have access myself.

<boog900> @rucknium:monero.social: has there been an increase in nodes that don't have the spy fingerprint? 3300 now

<boog900> seems like a big increase in a short space of time do you have their IPs to see if they are all on the same AS.

<rucknium> Since when do you mean?

<rucknium> Remember I fixed, or at least improved, the database lock issue. That could have caused some nodes to be missed. I think I could try to check that since missed nodes should be at random from day to day. So I could see if specific nodes appear, disappear, and reappear in the older data.

<boog900> when spruce creek appeared we were at 2200 spies and 2500 not spies, the numbers fluctuate a bit. But now we are at 2200 spies and 3300 not spies.

<boog900> @rucknium: ah yeah that could be it

<rucknium> Unfortunately it causes a break in the data series, but you live and you learn.

<boog900> look at the number of nodes with pruning, it increases when the number of non-spies increase, not when spruce creek shows up from what I can tell.

<boog900> if it were random that shouldn't have happened right?

<boog900> oh wait that only tracks honest nodes anyway

<boog900> still if it were random I wouldn't have expected the raw amount increase to be almost the same between the 2 right?

<rucknium> The first chart shows the data gaps like missing late December properly, but the other ones don't. I'm not sure why. It's a different type of chart (stacked line chart) than the others. Maybe by default the other charts don't show the data gaps.

<rucknium> @boog900: "same between the 2". Which two?

<rucknium> The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index of AS concentration of honest nodes has steadily decreased over the whole data collection period. I find that interesting and encouraging.

<boog900> the number of none spies and the number of pruned peers increase by almost the same amount. If it were random as some nodes were not being scanned before I would expect the number of pruned peers to increase according to the percent of pruned nodes, right?

<longtermwhale:matrix.org> why cant a spy use a trusted AS?

<syntheticbird> price

<syntheticbird> it's expensive

<longtermwhale:matrix.org> how do you assess that the information that they gain is not worth it?

<boog900> @longtermwhale:matrix.org: they do, look at the treemap on moneronet.info

<boog900> they use both

<boog900> hetzner and digitalocean both have spies

<rucknium> > <@boog900> the number of none spies and the number of pruned peers increase by almost the same amount. If it were random as some nodes were not being scanned before I would expect the number of pruned peers to increase according to the percent of pruned nodes, right?

<rucknium> That makes sense. But an alternative explanation is that the GUI wallet prunes blockchains by default now. That was changed in mid-2024 IIRC. I don't know if most reachable nodes would be booted by the GUI wallet. Probably most unreachable nodes are.

<boog900> it is sus that we gained like 500 nodes in a couple weeks though, maybe everyone spent Christmas setting up their Monero nodes though.

<rucknium> The prune-by-default hypothesis would also be consistent with decrease in AS concentration because most GUI wallets would be launched from "end-consumer" ASes.

should we use the --enable-dns-blocklist startup flag or --ban-list

<rucknium> I will check the node churn

<syntheticbird> yes

I figured but maybe there is some difference

<rucknium> nioc: Both, IMHO. The DNS blocklist has a capacity constraint. Right now it has all of the MRL ban list IP addresses, but if many more need to be added, the MRL ban list would be more complete.

using the updated --ban-list rn

so they can be used simultaneously ?

<rucknium> @boog900:monero.social: By the way you can get a lot of the historical data from an API request: api.moneronet.info/__docs__/#/default/%2Findividual_node_data-GET

<rucknium> curl -X 'GET' \

<rucknium> 'api.moneronet.info/individual_node_data?date=all' \

<rucknium> -H 'accept: */*'

<rucknium> It doesn't have all of the data I collect. For example, it consolidates records into one record per IP address, and lists multiple ports on the same IP if they have nodes. And it doesn't give you the peer lists that nodes share.

<rucknium> ^ That data pull for all dates gets you a 500MB file.

<rucknium> nioc: IIRC, there was some doubt before about whether both --ban-list and --enable-dns-blocklist could be used simultaneously, but testing showed that using them simultaneously worked fine.

<boog900> oh wow nice! > <@rucknium> @boog900:monero.social: By the way you can get a lot of the historical data from an API request: api.moneronet.info/__docs__/#/default/%2Findividual_node_data-GET

thx rucknium

<rucknium> ditatompel uses my API for xmr.ditatompel.com/remote-nodes/ban-list-enabled

<rucknium> At the bottom of moneronet.info you can also download the individual node table in CSV format by clicking a button, but that's only for the data of the most recent day.