[tor-relays] Anonbox Project

Pete's iPad ipad at petergarner.net
Wed Oct 15 20:48:17 UTC 2014


I was excited about this project and signed up as a backer. Then I read http://www.reddit.com/r/anonabox/comments/2ja22g/hi_im_august_germar_a_developer_for_the_anonabox/ and have reduced my contribution amount. Yes, I really like the idea of it this small device and what it does but at the same time I can see that it really *appears* that someone's allegedly selling on cheap hardware and applying a large markup. What an incredible testimony to the name of Tor though; the amount pledged with 27 days to go is approaching $500k ?! 

What concerns me more is that a lot of less-knowledgeable folk might sign up to be an exit node using what is really a low-power, low bandwidth device. Not good. 

I've since changed my pledge to $1 in recognition of the publicity, but I'll be setting up an Onion Pi and making a donation to Tor instead.

---
Peter T Garner, MBCS
On the Road (iPad)

https://www.petergarner.net

On 15 Oct 2014, at 14:47, isis <isis at torproject.org> wrote:

> 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-router/posts/1017625
> [1]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/augustgermar/anonabox-a-tor-hardware-router/posts/1017625?cursor=8115567#comment-8115566
> [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_developer_for_the_anonabox/cl9u17k
> 
> -- 
> ♥Ⓐ isis agora lovecruft
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