# Zcash Network Full Node Count Dropping **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [March 28, 2024, 6:33pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221 "2024-03-28T18:33:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![noamchom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/noamchom/32/20269_2.png) [@noamchom](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/noamchom)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 6:33pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/1 "2024-03-28T18:33:31Z")
Are there any explanations about why the full node count (at current block height) has dropped so low? We’re at around 130-135 nodes, whereas that count had tracked closer to 170 or more for the past year or two. Can any of the infrastructure engineers weigh in about this Blockchair site? (Are they accurately tracking all of the nodes on the network?) Is it possible that people are deciding to pull their full node off the network, or has something technical happened that might be causing the decrease? > **[Zcash / Node explorer](https://blockchair.com/zcash/nodes)** > > Explore Zcash (ZEC) network by looking for all accessible nodes, their countries, implementations, versions and consensus rules ---
**Author:** ![dismad](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/dismad/32/18432_2.png) [@dismad](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/dismad)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 7:11pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/2 "2024-03-28T19:11:42Z")
I think more folks are running nodes. If I had to guess, Id say blockchair is not accurate. The good news is ZF is making it much easier to others to spin one up! ---
**Author:** ![SexDrugsAndZcash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SexDrugsAndZcash](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/SexDrugsAndZcash)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 7:47pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/3 "2024-03-28T19:47:03Z")
its because of the spam bug, the price and other difficulties… we have to run as many nodes as soon as Zebra Launcher is ready!!! ---
**Author:** ![Shawn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/shawn/32/187_2.png) [@Shawn](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/Shawn)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/4 "2024-03-28T20:07:45Z")
> [@SexDrugsAndZcash](#): > > as soon as Zebra Launcher is ready!!! Zebra launcher is working now, super simple: > **[Release Zebra Launcher v0.0.0-alpha.1 · ZcashFoundation/zebra-launcher](https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra-launcher/releases/tag/v0.0.0-alpha.1)** > > This release adds a macOS aarch64 zebrad binary, fixes an issue with opening an extra console window on Windows, and fixes a style issue. > WARNING: This is an alpha version, it likely still has issu... ---
**Author:** ![Autotunafish](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/autotunafish/32/7827_2.png) [@Autotunafish](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/Autotunafish)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 10:34pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/5 "2024-03-28T22:34:09Z")
The only way that I know to do it for normal users is to run the Ziggurat crawler and I’m betting it will likely find roundabout the same number, but it does vary depending on the time and the seed ip’s etc. Also, you’ll have to link these 170 figures. Not saying that’s exactly wrong but I don’t quite remember that post NU5. Or maybe that’s what you’re referring to like what dude says with the Spam? Yeah that def ---
**Author:** ![SexDrugsAndZcash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SexDrugsAndZcash](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/SexDrugsAndZcash)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 10:35pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/6 "2024-03-28T22:35:13Z")
Yesss, this is so great! i wished for this :)) ---
**Author:** ![zerodartz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/zerodartz/32/26722_2.png) [@zerodartz](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/zerodartz)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 10:47pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/7 "2024-03-28T22:47:05Z")
this is very very big step to get more nodes. also zebra node runs so lightly on windows also now, im just syncing up one extra. but i think node runners should be incentivised also somehow a bit more also. ---
**Author:** ![Autotunafish](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/autotunafish/32/7827_2.png) [@Autotunafish](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/Autotunafish)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/8 "2024-03-29T14:30:36Z")
My crawl found 150 magicbeans and 13 zebras so yeah, a few more than last time. Went for 12hrs so its gotta be pretty close I’d say ![20240329_082748](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/original/3X/d/7/d7f74b5d00b69707cbd5011b87dc3993cca1d0c3.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![noamchom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/noamchom/32/20269_2.png) [@noamchom](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/noamchom)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2024, 2:38pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/9 "2024-03-29T14:38:11Z")
Thanks for running that crawl. Among the magicbeans does it count if they’re within a certain proximity of the highest height? > [@Autotunafish](#): > > Also, you’ll have to link these 170 figures ~170 was just off the top of my head, I check the network stats once or twice a month, and for a long time we were sitting around 150-170 nodes up near the current height. (Like you mention, I’m reflecting on just the past couple years) ---
**Author:** ![Autotunafish](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/autotunafish/32/7827_2.png) [@Autotunafish](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/Autotunafish)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2024, 2:45pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/10 "2024-03-29T14:45:19Z")
It specifies them against the protocol version which is 170100, I think with just handshakes. I don’t think it actually requests any state information like if it’s currently syncing or fully synced, I’ll have to check. ---
**Author:** ![artkor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/artkor/32/28573_2.png) [@artkor](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/artkor)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 6:41am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/11 "2024-09-09T06:41:36Z")
Hi! I noticed this message in X: ![Снимок экрана 2024-09-09 в 09.32.44](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/original/3X/a/9/a97c834abbd00c192bca779eb2d83afc0090517f.png) [https://mainnet.zcashexplorer.app/nodes](https://mainnet.zcashexplorer.app/nodes) I had some questions. First of all, why do we publish the IP addresses of nodes in the public domain? ![Снимок экрана 2024-09-09 в 09.36.55](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/original/3X/e/a/ea228d75d6707526d6671ea28aa77459b2bdf263.png) I don’t know who is currently running this service, so please ping the forum to discuss this. ![Снимок экрана 2024-09-09 в 09.35.03](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/original/3X/0/a/0acec87dce9e8625e4e724e80b956b4f0d937708.png) My other question is related to what tool can I use to scan the Zcash network for the number of nodes? And another question has to do with what are some ways to hide yourself nowadays. Especially interested in tools built into the node to hide their metrics. This could be a very relevant topic in the future, if in some jurisdictions node holders will expose themselves to the risk of penalties from the state. Thanks in advance to all who will join this discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Autotunafish](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/autotunafish/32/7827_2.png) [@Autotunafish](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/Autotunafish)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 1:52pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/13 "2024-09-09T13:52:14Z")
Zcashd has support for ToR v2, but v3 is till pending for the ecosystem. Development on Arti is coming along nicely so keep an eye on that. ---
**Author:** ![dismad](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/dismad/32/18432_2.png) [@dismad](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/dismad)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 2:13pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/14 "2024-09-09T14:13:46Z")
> [@artkor](#): > > My other question is related to what tool can I use to scan the Zcash network for the number of nodes? > [@Ziggurat 3.0](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/ziggurat-3-0/43350/27): > > Hi! Sample command you can execute from the root repo directory (just replace IP and PORT with starting peer - either DNS seeder or any zcash node): cargo run --release --features crawler --bin crawler -- --seed-addrs "IP:PORT" --rpc-addr 127.0.0.1:54321 And then just grab the results from running crawler from the other console: curl --data-binary '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id":0, "method": "getmetrics", "params": [] }' -H 'content-type: application/json' http://127.0.0.1:54321/ \> latest.json It … ---
**Author:** ![str4d](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/str4d/32/64_2.png) [@str4d](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/str4d)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 2:45pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/15 "2024-09-09T14:45:14Z")
As another datapoint here, the DNS Seeders track as many nodes as they can find, and identify nodes that they consider “good” for advertising to others (via several metrics, such as consistent long-term uptime and reachability). The actual number of full nodes in the network will be higher due to e.g. nodes that are not externally reachable, but have themselves connected into the network. The seeder I operate currently reports around 100 “good” nodes. It’s been stable around this level for the past year (I don’t keep historic records, but checked Slack for times I pasted its output into a channel). ---
**Author:** ![Shawn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/shawn/32/187_2.png) [@Shawn](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/Shawn)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 3:26pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/16 "2024-09-09T15:26:59Z")
Blockchair shows over 3k nodes on Zcash mainnet: > **[Zcash / Node explorer](https://blockchair.com/zcash/nodes)** > > Explore Zcash (ZEC) network by looking for all accessible nodes, their countries, implementations, versions and consensus rules Not sure if that’s current or all time that they have seen. ---
**Author:** ![Autotunafish](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/autotunafish/32/7827_2.png) [@Autotunafish](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/Autotunafish)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 5:16pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/17 "2024-09-09T17:16:03Z")
Those nodes are on the same magic but use a different protocol version from 170100 and 170110, so ignore them. Crawl from this past weekend showed about half of zcashd’s were upgraded to 5.10.0 from 5.9.1 and 11 zebrad 1.9.0’s. ![17259020775765897140947886669639](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/original/3X/4/5/458d6c9760e04f936b4a0c8d6216c445a72711ac.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![artkor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/artkor/32/28573_2.png) [@artkor](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/artkor)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 5:34pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/18 "2024-09-09T17:34:31Z")
MagicBean:7.1.0 it’s Flux nodes > [@MagicBean 6.0.0?](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/magicbean-6-0-0/42184/2): > > Those are nodes from the Flux (previously named ZelCash) network. It’s a code fork of Zcash, in which they did not alter the network magic, default port, or user agent. I think the reason these are appearing in that explorer view is because these nodes were connecting half-successfully to zcashd nodes (their handshakes succeeded, but block propagation didn’t), causing them to be cached in the zcashd nodes’ peers.dat files. After NU5 activated, these nodes were disconnected from, but there’s a b… ---
**Author:** ![noamchom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/noamchom/32/20269_2.png) [@noamchom](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/noamchom)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/19 "2024-09-09T17:35:43Z")
There is no way blockchair is correct because the vast majority of nodes are almost 1 million blocks behind! ![Screenshot_20240909-133400](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/original/3X/c/a/caa66451a392b98055b46c182bb304043675357e.png) As already mentioned though, perhaps these node tracker sites haven’t got means of determining “quality” of a node. ---
**Author:** ![dontpanicburns](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/dontpanicburns/32/32565_2.png) [@dontpanicburns](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/dontpanicburns)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:55am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/20 "2024-09-10T02:55:42Z")
Flux nodes have some incentive structure to run nodes. [thread from last time](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-blockchain-size-risks/43126/58) The bigger concern is still 58% of boocks come from the same pool [minerstats](https://miningpoolstats.stream/zcash) If that pool doesn’t agree with a protocol change, the change doesn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![dontpanicburns](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/dontpanicburns/32/32565_2.png) [@dontpanicburns](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/dontpanicburns)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 3:15am UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221/21 "2024-09-10T03:15:31Z")
it is only a trivial threat though tbh. zcash’s governance gives it strategic command on deciding which fork wins. it is a unique dynamic. And zcash privacy is designed well enough that even if it were run on one server the pricacy guarantees would still hold. more nodes are better though. Also you have to factor in most people who run nodes run more than one for safety. one is none, 2 is 1. Imagine having a few mil counting on only one node in one region. scary stuff [Next page](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcash-network-full-node-count-dropping/47221.md?page=2)