[tor-relays] Estimating the value and cost of the Tor network

[Mike Perry]

Moritz Bartl:
> Prices vary widely across different countries. We pay between $400 and
> $1500 per Gbit/s per month in "popular and cheap locations". In a
> scenario where we want to grow the network and at least keep the current
> geographical diversity (or even grow it), we'd have to at least equally
> strengthen less fortunate locations.

Right. With just one or two identity fingerprints, I can give an
estimate on the minimum cost to build an equivalent Tor network with the
same capacity, as I have already done. This is not very interesting,
though, as you point out.

But with just one or two good example identity fingerprints (with
pricing) in key locations, I can tell us how much investment it would
take to build the Tor network with the diversity we want, using our
current load balancing and network load. 

In other words, I can easily calculate what it would cost to ensure that
the network path selection was made up of W% of RU, X% of US relays, Y%
of EU relays, Z% of JP relays, etc etc.

With many more datapoints I can tell us how much the current Tor network
actually costs with its current diversity, but I think that is actually
less interesting, unless we wanted to be able to make assumptions like
"As soon as we start paying people for bandwidth, all of (or X% of) our
volunteers will instantly disappear" (which seems unlikely to me, but
others think is a realistic concern).

*But* In order to do any of this, I need specific identity fingerprints
and prices to do that calculation first. Again, I want to extrapolate
from real relays, using our current load balancing.

So far only two people have given me identity fingerprints with actual
pricing information. I need way more.
 

-- 
Mike Perry
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 801 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-relays/attachments/20140924/5370db6d/attachment.sig>