Sven Reissmann transcribed 2.4K bytes:
Hi there,
I recently read about the anonbox project [1], a small hardware-router, which allows end-users to connect their whole LAN to the Tor network. The project is on kickstarter at the moment [2].
Has there already been a discussion on how this might affect the performance of the Tor network?
Yes and no.
One of the Anonabox developers, August Germar, posted to their kickstarter page that the distributed Anonaboxes would have a checkout option to be relays/bridges by default. [0] Colin Mahns responded to this, [1] pointing out some of my recent discussions with Mike Perry and others on the tor-dev list on scaling the Tor network. [2] [3] (And August Germar responded in their Reddit AMA. [4])
I agree with Colin that the Anonabox folks seem to be well-intentioned. However, the network effects, were these routers to be distributed, and were a majority of them to be configured as relays by default, would likely be harmful due to the low bandwidth of most residential connections.
That said, I think that everyone here would welcome the chance for a pocket-sized FLOSS router which enforces safe Tor usage. If that is their goal, and they are able to communicate honestly with users, I'd like to help them succeed. Particularly if it means someone else does hardware development, since that's not really my jam. :)
[0]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/augustgermar/anonabox-a-tor-hardware-ro... [1]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/augustgermar/anonabox-a-tor-hardware-ro... [2]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-September/007558.html [3]: https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-September/007560.html [4]: https://www.reddit.com/r/anonabox/comments/2ja22g/hi_im_august_germar_a_deve...