On Sun, Mar 09, 2014 at 12:21:11PM -0400, Tora Tora Tora wrote:
I am pretty sure the answer is "NO", but is there a way to "enhance" Tor in such a way that a relay that does not host hidden services can also choose not to carry traffic for hidden services? those who want to use hidden services can do so by using more limited subset of the Tor network at the risk of less anonymity, I suppose. I am not sure how it would work as it seems the client chooses the relays.
That would break sites such as DuckDuckGo which provide a hidden service for searches. Providing such a service is the most anonymous way to offer service to Tor users; it defeats the malicious exit node problem and many traffic analysis attacks.
Like TCP/IP or any other tool, hidden services can be used for malicious purposes, but they can also be used for good.
-andy