[tor-talk] Bear Bonds - a new cryptocurrency that uses Tor

[allen at bearbonds.org]

> And details on "directory servers", "witnesses", "trusted party
> transaction servers".

A lot of that is explained in the technical documentation.  Briefly,  
the directory servers function like torrent trackers.  The network  
nodes contact one or more directory servers, register their own onion  
address, and request the onion addresses of 6-20 random peers.  The  
network nodes then contact random peers via their Tor hidden services  
to assemble the mesh network that relays transactions and blocks.  All  
communication with the directory servers is also via Tor so the  
transaction servers themselves don't have to be trusted--they can  
neither compromise a node's privacy, nor target their communications  
in an effort to split or fork the network.

The witnesses assemble the blockchain.  That is explained in the  
whitepaper and the "Blockchain Assembly" document.  The witnesses'  
only role is to timestamp the transactions.  The number of witness is  
limited so the blockchain can be assembled in an orderly manner that  
achieves higher speed and reliability.  All of the nodes on the  
network verify the blockchain, so the witnesses cannot add any  
transaction that violates the transaction rules.  And since all  
communication is via Tor, the witnesses are also not able to  
compromise privacy nor target their communications in an effort to  
split or fork the network.

The transaction servers help wallet applications create and submit  
transactions.  That is explained in the whitepaper, the "Wallet  
Developer's Guide" and the "Transaction API Reference Manual".  Any  
network node can act as a transaction server, so you will eventually  
be able to run your own (when the network node software is done), or  
we plan to provide public transaction servers that anyone can use.   
The distinction between a trusted transaction server and an untrusted  
transaction server is explained in the whitepaper (page 9).  The trust  
in this case is only in regard to privacy.  If the wallet does not  
trust the transaction server to maintain privacy, the wallet can take  
extra steps to prevent its queries to the transaction server from  
being linked to the transaction that the wallet creates and submits to  
the network.

> What is your .onion?
> What networks besides Tor do you have as pluggable
> (or even multihome) options for when Tor is or becomes
> incapacitated or unreachable or users simply prefer other?

We currently do not support any network other than Tor.  Before  
introducing a new network, we would have to carefully consider whether  
it could potentially compromise privacy and security.

Our website does not have an onion address at the moment, although I'm  
sure we'll add one eventually.  The current Bear Bonds test network  
has one onion address for a public transaction server--that address  
can be found in the wallet simulation script.