[tor-bugs] #13288 [Tor]: bittorrent-like reciprocal routing

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#13288: bittorrent-like reciprocal routing
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 Reporter:  cypherpunks                          |          Owner:
     Type:  task                                 |         Status:  new
 Priority:  minor                                |      Milestone:  Tor:
Component:  Tor                                  |  unspecified
 Keywords:  bittorrent, reciprocal, tit-for-     |        Version:  Tor:
  tat,tribler                                    |  unspecified
Parent ID:                                       |  Actual Points:
                                                 |         Points:
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 We all know that people have suggested ways to make Tor not so reliant on
 altruism, and one of the biggest of them is torcoin. But I have an idea
 that doesn't require passing a huge blockchain structure around or any of
 the other things associated with cryptocurrency overhead. It's called tit-
 for-tat, the same thing bittorrent uses.

 Basically, the suggestion is, if you use tor, you can become involved in
 routing packets (by default only as a routing node, unless you
 specifically take up being an exit node). Your efforts are repaid later
 when the people you've helped route packets from are much more likely to
 help route your packets in return. This suggested system is much like
 bittorrent, where helping other users retrieve the file they're trying to
 download will help you download more stuff from them immediately or later
 on. While other peer-to-peer networks have fallen into relative obscurity
 or collapsed, bittorrent remains very strong, partially because of tit-
 for-tat.

 The current altruistic nodes can continue being there to help relieve
 demand bottlenecks, but with reciprocal routing, the tor network can scale
 up farther than if we continued to rely on altruistic people to run nodes.

 If you still have no idea what I'm trying to say, check out tribler.
 They're building a tor-like network into their bittorrent client as I
 type.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/13288>
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