Community: Milestones, new I2P research and notes from RightsCon Costa Rica
DIVA will begin I2P network research mid-September with HSLU (applied sciences, Lucerne, Switzerland). This research focused on de-anonymizing I2P network participants, and will run for 4-5 months. In a nutshell: the attack is designed to eliminate peers from the network to get control over tunnels. Previous study did this theoretically. Now it is time to do it for real.
The goal is to link an ip address to a service (UDP-based file sharing process or a TCP-based service). The attack targets will be DIVA related (they will not attack anything which is not under the control of DIVA). The final result will be a paper and related code.
DIVAchain (https://github.com/diva-exchange/divachain) is now stable on I2P / UDP.
"This is a Blockchain implementation using Proof-of-Stake (PoS) as a consensus algorithm. It is a fully anonymous ("Privacy-By-Design"), very lightweight, fast, low-energy and permissionless blockchain."
There have been conversations about DNS using DIVAchain on the I2P network. This topic is set for further discussion during FOSDEM in 2024.
DIVA will be attending Hack The Promise this week : https://www.diva.exchange/en/privacy/in-anticipation-of-the-hackthepromise-conference/
Previous I2P de-anonymizing research : https://odysee.com/@diva.exchange:d/monerokon2022:0
Learn more about DIVA.EXCHANGE https://www.diva.exchange/en/
Watch our interview with Konrad for Meet Your Maintainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfc1LXF_pKQ
Congratulations to StormyCloud for their one year anniversary as the I2P core outproxy service! https://stormycloud.org/i2p-outproxy/
"We're thrilled to announce that we've reached a significant milestone - one year as the default outproxy provider for I2P! Our partnership with I2P has been a fantastic journey, and we're committed to supporting the network in even more ways. While we don't have any flashy statistics to share (we don't collect any data, which is great for user privacy!), we're proud to offer our services free of charge to the I2P community. However, we're always open to donations to help us sustain and improve our services. If you'd like to learn more about our organization and how to support us, please visit our website at stormycloud.org/donate/. Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey with us, and here's to many more years of collaboration with I2P!"
Maintaining a reliable and stable outproxy is not an easy job, and the I2P community is very fortunate to have this service. Thanks to StormyCloud for helping people access clearnet properties safely and anonymously. You can support StormyCloud with donations: https://stormycloud.org/donate/
Read our interview with StormyCloud: https://theoverlay.ghost.io/meet-your-maintainer-a-conversation-with-i2p-outproxy-operators-stormycloud-inc/
I2P at RightsCon Costa Rica
In June I attended RightsCon in Costa Rica.
I led a presentation about I2P to a packed room(!) with help from Helen and Phong. We were able to talk about the protocols, research, and outreach over the past four years.
In 2019, the results of Phong's research Measuring I2P Censorship at a Global Scale https://www.usenix.org/conference/foci19/presentation/hoang were presented at FOCI'19.
The I2P Metrics Portal can be accessed here: https://i2p-metrics.np-tokumei.net/
In 2021 I worked with Helen, thanks to a collaboration with Internews. Our focus was on how people view privacy, what tools they use, and what their impressions were of I2P. We were able to identify specific issues with language, onboarding, UX, and also issues specific to bandwidth and data costs and access. The conversation continued to FIFAfrica last year, where we participated in a panel discussion about privacy and peer-to-peer network options.
The talk at RightsCon was a big success. There is lots of interest in making things available on the network for people who are encountering regional censorship / blocking of clearnet publishing and platforms.
Publishers will require both clear onramps for maintaining services on the network, and also need to consider site performance, as was noted by Deutsche Welle. Great conversations about the state of the internet, distributed networks and rethinking how we are building our digital landscapes.
There is also the need to test for network function in regions where censorship of information is happening. This next few months I am learning more regarding regional blocking, and internet governance. The result will be more resources for development and community, as well as introducing I2P to more researchers and developers.
Our next community meet up will be October 17th, at 1pm EST. If you are working on something awesome and I2P related, contact sadie to participate in the itinerary!