[tor-bugs] #15845 [Onionoo]: Add new field for publication time of first known descriptor

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#15845: Add new field for publication time of first known descriptor
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 Reporter:  karsten      |          Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |      Milestone:
Component:  Onionoo      |        Version:
 Keywords:               |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:               |         Points:
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 Nusenu [https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-
 dev/2015-April/008726.html writes on tor-dev@] that "timestamps are useful
 to link relays, unfortunately onionoo only says in which consensus the
 relay was first seen (granularity: 1hour) but does not include the
 timestamp of the first seen descriptor that ended up in the consensus
 (published line). That timestamp would have a higher granularity
 (seconds). What do you think about adding such a timestamp? (I acknowledge
 that I might be the only user of this field)"

 I'm yet undecided.  Here are some pros and cons:

 Pros:
  - Onionoo data will become more useful to detect relays that are part of
 a naive Sybil attack where the attacker adds all relays at the exact same
 time.

 Cons:
  - It's unclear whether the additional timestamp precision will make this
 task much easier, or whether precision up to one hour is sufficient,
 especially if compared with other properties.
  - We'll have to parse all server descriptors once again, or this field
 won't be accurate.  Server descriptors reach back to December 2005, so
 that's almost 10 years of data.  This would probably keep a mid-size EC2
 instance busy for a week.
  - Each client that downloads a details document will have to also
 download this additional timestamp which they won't care about.  Not the
 end of the world, but something to consider.

 I'm leaning towards not adding such a field, but I'm happy to hear more
 pros.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/15845>
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