-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi all,
I've conceived a possibly new usage of the Tor network, I need your comments. The problem: The Tor network is composed of servers run by volunteers from all over the world, the role of these servers is solely to relay traffic, the benefits which can be proposed to convince a user to run a server is not very obvious (yes, I know, user may get better anonymity by running a server). I think this situation might be improved by introducing a new usage to the Tor network, say, letting Tor servers -- no matter exit or not -- having the ability to communicate with each other within the Tor network, here, *communicating* is a broader concept besides relaying traffic. For example, both A and B are running *non-exit* Tor servers. Now, A want to secretly and securely send a file to B, he(A) doesn't need other mechanisms, he doesn't need to know B's address either, all he needs is B's nickname, he specifies: "I want Tor to transfer my file to B(nickname)", then Tor will create a circuit starting from A's server and ending at B's server, the file is transfered over the circuit, never goes out of the Tor network, thus meets A's security needs (right?). So, with this usage, people will have more reasons to run Tor servers, they will learn their Tor servers can do more than just relaying traffic for others, more servers will add to the network. And it seems most of these new servers will be non-exit, this may be helpful to http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#China OK, I've described my idea, hopefully it is clear. :) Some questions follow. 1) I know my idea is rather primitive, but in general, is it an idea worth deeper investigation? 2) If the answer to the above question is true, then is it possible to use available softwares to meet this usage (e.g., by tweaking torrc)? 3) I believe it's always possible to write new code to meet this usage, but will it be hard or just a snap? Regards, Pei Hanru -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.4 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFFcrUJtHG285r2MGoRAgYGAJ9w8j7YnfkOP9+Sf6uY5FhQqZZUwQCgreOT 1DV2jEz2Ay5AcWrrkjd9UF8= =jaX6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
