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

Mike Perry mikeperry at torproject.org
Thu Sep 25 07:21:46 UTC 2014


I really need identity fingerprints to see how much traffic your node is
actually pushing, what its consensus weight is, when and how often it is
hibernating, if it is otherwise strangely rate limited, etc.

Kees Goossens:
> Hello Perry. 
> 5 TB/month for 20 euro/month at transip in the NL. I run a non-exit relay there. (Thinking about making it an exit.)
> Kees
> 
> --
> Kees on the move
> 
> > On 25 Sep 2014, at 03:03, Mike Perry <mikeperry at torproject.org> wrote:
> > 
> > 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
> > _______________________________________________
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> > tor-relays at lists.torproject.org
> > https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
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-- 
Mike Perry
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