I promised - I’m telling you 🫡 Today we are talking about TOR and I2P. Two tools, two ap…

I promised - I tell you 🫡

Today we are talking about TOR and I2P. Two tools, two approaches, two philosophies. And yes, these are the very technologies that underlie the darknet. In one of posts I promised that I would tell you more about them. Well, the moment has come 🥂

TOR is a technology that encrypts your Internet traffic and sends it through a chain of random nodes around the world

Imagine: you send a letter, but before it reaches the recipient, it passes through three random intermediaries, each of whom knows only the one from whom he received the letter and the one to whom he should pass it on. None of them knows the entire chain - and this is the key point. TOR creates the same routing, only for your data. The site you open does not see your real IP, and you yourself do not see which countries and servers your requests went through 😳

The whole scheme is called "onion routing" - because, like in a bow, everything is built in layers. Each node removes one layer of encryption until it eventually reaches the content

I2P is generally a little different. Unlike TOR, it is primarily built around an internal, isolated infrastructure. This is a full-fledged decentralized network in which users communicate only with each other

That is, if TOR is a way to anonymously access the Internet, then I2P is a separate Internet in which all communication takes place within the network. Instead .onion used here .i2p . Everything is encrypted, routes are built in both directions ( incoming and outgoing tunnels ), and there are no “exit nodes” outside by default 😱

In practice, TOR is easier for a beginner. Just install the browser and start using it. I2P requires more complex setup and understanding, but provides greater anonymity. TOR is suitable for those who value access to information, I2P is for those who value secure internal communication

Both projects are open source, and behind each there is a community that has been developing for years 💪

Yes, both technologies are actively used on the darknet. And, yes, in addition to all the criminal that goes there, there are also legitimate scenarios ( journalists, activists, human rights defenders, just people living in countries with limited access to information )

Anonymity in itself is not evil. It all depends on whose hands it ends up. I am deeply convinced that the right to privacy is not a privilege, but a basic digital necessity. of the world. But this is where an ethical conflict begins. 👇

For some, anonymity is protection, for others it is a cover. And the more you are in this topic, the more you begin to understand how ambiguous everything is.

Write in the comments what you think about anonymity on the Internet. Is this a benefit or a potential threat? Do you think a person should have the right to be invisible online? 🛡

#information_security