My approach only use bitcoin backed anonymous cash (ie: Open Transactions).
Each node in the chain is paid in turn... with a 'credit basis' so you pay for 10MB at a time.
Any node that 'cheats' is obvious and people stop routing to it.
Every node in the network can operate 'at profit' while keeping the transactions private.
Any 'trusted node' can serve as a 'bank' for the other nodes and the bank would manage anonymous accounts funded via bitcoin.
The challenge is to scale up the processing / exchanging of digital cash so that it doesn't become a bottleneck.
When it is all said and done people can 'mine' bitcoins simply by running a node on the network and routing traffic. Each node will set its own price / bandwidth and the market will drive performance.
The real challenge is not giving up your identity via latency.
I have old code from related projects up on github, but nothing ready.
(An early version of the program.. riddled with bugs and not worth anyone downloading right now)
https://github.com/bytemaster/tornet
I am just posting the link so people know I am a real, capable software developer... I just need time away from my day job to get this done. I would love to work on it full time if we could find funding for such a project.
Topic: Professional TOR network with Bitcoin fees? - page 2. (Read 2431 times)
Just got an idea. What if the exit node receives bitcoins anonymously, then the last layer of the Tor encrypted data is encrypted using the Bitcoin private key used to sign transaction of bitcoin payment? The exit node then can decrypt to see that the data come from same entity who signed the bitcoin tx. In such way the IP of person using the premium service is not revealed. The directory of nodes describing their services and prices might be added to standard Tor directory. Something similar might be used for relay nodes. The payments must be made in two unrelated transactions to avoid linking of identities if nodes are cooperating in deanonymization attack.
This of course means there might be need for adjustment of encryption keys in Tor software and close integration of Tor/Vidalia and Bitcoin-Qt. Probably Bitcoin-Qt might be unchanged but Vidalia and Tor will communicate to Bitcoin-Qt like Armory does.
This probably opens more network privacy and anonymity problems but this might be good start.
This of course means there might be need for adjustment of encryption keys in Tor software and close integration of Tor/Vidalia and Bitcoin-Qt. Probably Bitcoin-Qt might be unchanged but Vidalia and Tor will communicate to Bitcoin-Qt like Armory does.
This probably opens more network privacy and anonymity problems but this might be good start.
is there a way to have the premium nodes have a whitelist? they get a message form the directory host that payments have been made to whitelist certain ip address?
maybe the fees could be flat fees based on the total total bandwidth provided by the pooled nodes?
i think there could be a market for competing directories, similar to the market for competing ISP's
directories could claim certain bandwidths and certain prices.
oooh, im gonna steal this one....
maybe the fees could be flat fees based on the total total bandwidth provided by the pooled nodes?
i think there could be a market for competing directories, similar to the market for competing ISP's
directories could claim certain bandwidths and certain prices.
government controlfags
oooh, im gonna steal this one....
I don't want to discourage the development of the project if it is feasible. But the problem with premium node directory list will be sharing of the list (piracy). Also what prevents the exit node for claiming more traffic than it really processed (cheating). There must be some sort of cryptographic link between payment for circuit and source node for that payment. Could it be done anonymously?
Probably some foundation could collect the donations in various forms (including bitcoins) and then forward them to exit node operators. This will benefit everyone using Tor because not everybody could afford paying for premuim circuit. I think Torservers.net is a good starting point.
And there is stopgap solution to deploy Tor exit nodes on botnet computers.
But anonymity technology on top of current network is feasible, it works for it's purposes.
Probably some foundation could collect the donations in various forms (including bitcoins) and then forward them to exit node operators. This will benefit everyone using Tor because not everybody could afford paying for premuim circuit. I think Torservers.net is a good starting point.
And there is stopgap solution to deploy Tor exit nodes on botnet computers.
Quote
or perhaps a completely new internet that has anonymizing baked right in...
Not going to happen for two reasons. Current internet have too much userbase to migrate to completely new solution. And the government controlfags would dislike network who is not censorable or controllable for them. They will kill the project in infancy.But anonymity technology on top of current network is feasible, it works for it's purposes.
I realize that more information means more traceability, but is 50 a realistic number to use? Well, perhaps in small countries with not a lot of TOR adoption.
Perhaps if there could be some auto coin washing step in the process...
Perhaps there could be a some sort of premium tor node directory that is subscription based, so you could pay one ip address to access a whole bunch of premium nodes, then the nodes get a portion of the profits based on a percentage of the traffic? If it were done on a monthly basis, and there were enough subscribers, wouldn't that provide enough cover?
or perhaps someone much smarter than me comes up with something completely different and completely awesome....
or perhaps a completely new internet that has anonymizing baked right in...
Perhaps if there could be some auto coin washing step in the process...
Perhaps there could be a some sort of premium tor node directory that is subscription based, so you could pay one ip address to access a whole bunch of premium nodes, then the nodes get a portion of the profits based on a percentage of the traffic? If it were done on a monthly basis, and there were enough subscribers, wouldn't that provide enough cover?
or perhaps someone much smarter than me comes up with something completely different and completely awesome....
or perhaps a completely new internet that has anonymizing baked right in...
This might be anonymity problem because of correlation and traceability of bitcoins when not handled properly. Imagine 50 people use Tor in the country. But only 7 of them are known to have purchased Bitcoins or have been informed by bitcoin existence. Looking for them all moving their coins while timing the Tor connection might de-anonymize the circuit.
How about someone who cares about internet privacy sponsoring dedicated Tor exit node with bitcoins? I have spare computer around unusable for daily activities because of too weak hardware but I can buy separate anonymous connection and have the exit node running 24/7/365. I need the separate and anonymous connection because running exit node on my own connection created too much hassle some time ago and now it become dangerous. I cannot afford the separate connection by myself right now.
How about someone who cares about internet privacy sponsoring dedicated Tor exit node with bitcoins? I have spare computer around unusable for daily activities because of too weak hardware but I can buy separate anonymous connection and have the exit node running 24/7/365. I need the separate and anonymous connection because running exit node on my own connection created too much hassle some time ago and now it become dangerous. I cannot afford the separate connection by myself right now.
I'm super excited about that!
keep me posted on that development. and I'll let all my friends know about it.
do you have a website or repository?
keep me posted on that development. and I'll let all my friends know about it.
do you have a website or repository?
I am actively developing such a system... the challenge is micropayments, but I think I have it all worked out.
Anyone have any updates on the pay-to-use TOR nodes that use Bitcoin as the currency? I heard the idea a while back, and was wondering if
anyone has been working on it or heard news about it.
Additionally, if this went anywhere, it would seem that it would necessitate lots of really small transactions.
Any thoughts on if they would bump up against the 5430 limit?
Perhaps this would be better suited for a litecoin or a feathercoin?
anyone has been working on it or heard news about it.
Additionally, if this went anywhere, it would seem that it would necessitate lots of really small transactions.
Any thoughts on if they would bump up against the 5430 limit?
Perhaps this would be better suited for a litecoin or a feathercoin?
Jump to: