I2P Anonymous Network
27 points by whereistimbo 4 days ago | 13 comments
  • fsflover 3 days ago |
    The completely anonymous, built-in torrents in I2P are hugely undervalued. I expected that every big torrent tracker would set up a mirror in I2P in order to allow their users to stay anonymous. I don't understand why they don't do it.
    • Charon77 3 days ago |
      There's already the DHT that really removes the need of trackers in the first place.
      • fsflover 3 days ago |
        It doesn't hide the IPs and doesn't help discovery.
      • anacrolix 2 days ago |
        Yeah it really isn't anonymous at all.
    • aspenmayer 2 days ago |
      I don't think public torrent trackers would have much incentive to do so, as their legal justification is that they aren't hosting or linking to files themselves. If they were to run services like I2P they would probably have a harder time making that claim.

      Private trackers probably wouldn't want to do that because it probably would mess with the largely IP-based seed ratio requirements which most private trackers have.

      • fsflover 2 days ago |
        > If they were to run services like I2P they would probably have a harder time making that claim.

        What are you talking about? Torrent servers in I2P don't store files either.

        > largely IP-based seed ratio requirements

        I thought it was largely account-based, not IP-based.

        • aspenmayer 2 days ago |
          > What are you talking about? They don't store files either.

          Running I2P would require more storage than the status quo of not running it. They usually store torrents and or magnet links, not the files themselves. I don’t know how much overhead running I2P would be over and above running a tracker also?

          > I thought it was largely account-based, not IP-based.

          Yes, those are not mutually exclusive. You have an account and the tracker binds the IP that downloads the torrent to a cookie or to a unique tracker announce url.

          • fsflover 2 days ago |
            > Running I2P would require more storage than the status quo of not running it

            I don't think it's significant. You might confuse I2P with Hyphanet (formerly Freenet), which is dedicated to anonymous storage.

            > I don’t know how much overhead running I2P would be over and above running a tracker also?

            The overhead will depend on whether you want to keep your tracker's IP hidden. If not, it should be minimal AFAIK.

  • oigursh 3 days ago |
    I believe there's a simple boot flag for tails OS that let's you use this instead of Tor.
  • sunshine-o 3 days ago |
    While I really like the concept, I2P is one of those P2P network strongly associated with the darkest corner of the Internet in my mind and something I would rather stay away from (because I would rather not get arrested randomly because I have used it).

    Now I was just going through the I2P Wikipedia page and I couldn't find anything about that. Are my fears irrational?

    • seanw444 3 days ago |
      Unless you live in a third-world country, I don't think you have to worry much, especially if you live a very uncontroversial life.
    • fsflover 2 days ago |
      > strongly associated with the darkest corner of the Internet in my mind

      Just like Tor?

      https://support.torproject.org/#abuse_what-about-criminals