Tor Nodes Crowdfund
currently active!
0.00000004 BTC
Raised
- {{stat.label}} {{stat.value}}
0%
Of Goal
312
Contributors
Save The Onion Router
Introduction
Since several months, Tor is experiencing a heavy network-wide DDoS attempt impacting the performance of the Tor network, which includes both onion services and non-onion services traffic.
Bitcoin Network, Liquid Network, Lightning Network, Electrum and many other wallets and projects rely on it heavily, so we are all affected. It means that communication is slower and more unrealiable, resulting in many failing connections and possible deanonymization attacks.
I am actively looking for ways to improve the situation. For now, I have limited myself to managing my Tor Guard/Middle Relay, which, as you can see, like other relays, has been under attack for several months and tends to go offline constantly.
Everyone uses tor but no one runs a Tor node.
Result? Few nodes already supports (with difficulties) millions of users who use this network every day. For an attacker it is not so difficult to put in difficulty those few active nodes and for this it is fundamental that anyone with technical skills or a some time, runs a Tor node, specifically a guard/middle relay.
Guide on how to run a Tor Relay: https://community.torproject.org/relay/
The Crowdfund
As I understand that not all people can afford to configure such a relay (for reasons of lack of competence, desire, time, or jurisdictional difficulties), I decided to launch this fundraising campaign to configure and manage new guard/middle relays.
On this page you can donate and choose which node you want to launch. Each hosting was selected based on these criteria:
- Accept Bitcoin payments
- It is privacy-oriented
- It has at least 1GB of Ram, 1 vCPU and a bandwidth of at least 100Mb / s (most of these, however, have at least 300 Mb / s of bandwidth)
Thanks to the transparency of Bitcoin and BTCPayServer, you will be able to see in real time all the donations made and the new configured relays (which I will add on this page in real time as soon as they are active).
I hope I can help the network and do my part in allowing everyone to have private access to an uncensored internet, Tor has become the world's strongest tool for privacy and freedom online and we must defend it.
Donations
It is possible to choose a specific VPS or to make an arbitrary donation, which will be used to add funds to the campaign and launch new nodes. Every specific VPS donation includes 1year of VPS + 20$ to avoid financial loss caused by BTC price volatility (from the moment of donation, to the purchase of the service denominated in dollars), to cover the transaction fees if the donation was made onchain, to cover the LN>onchain swap if the donation was made via Lightning Network, the time to buy, set up and manage the nodes over a 1-year period. I will use the remaining money to open anonymous Tor bridges.
PayJoin and Lightning donations are enabled.
To support my Lightning Node and allowing me to receive donations via LN, feel free to open a channel.
Public Key:
02b8c29e92f4842d06c5f6a5e8c53be29f5a6cf4bfd3c4d57d12aae3b0f2d9e10c
IP Addresses:
51.178.82.201:9735
[2001:41d0:404:200::5082]:9735
wstxzgbzof5ecpnkacm6b4ljgr5nx5xwucxc2rw53t5cqygv5c23mqad.onion:9735
1ML: https://1ml.com/node/02b8c29e92f4842d06c5f6a5e8c53be29f5a6cf4bfd3c4d57d12aae3b0f2d9e10c
Amboss: https://amboss.space/node/02b8c29e92f4842d06c5f6a5e8c53be29f5a6cf4bfd3c4d57d12aae3b0f2d9e10c
Mempool: https://mempool.space/lightning/node/02b8c29e92f4842d06c5f6a5e8c53be29f5a6cf4bfd3c4d57d12aae3b0f2d9e10c
Remember that you can also donate to Official Tor Project's team here: https://donate.torproject.org/
Donations/Nodes Running:
Full Relay Family: 63D33A5C3FA2CB4D6DC1FC5E25C320E8C448DD96
(old nodes that were running from October 2022 until March 2023 that were delete and killed will not appear here) Also bridges will not appear here.
* Update October 17, 2022 > In touch with Tor team to manage a big private donation that will be sent directly to them. Also tweaking the current servers and working on a tutorial and an automated script to permit everyone that wants to run multiple nodes in an easy and safe way.
* Update October 24, 2022 > Still testing tweaking the automatization script and anti DDoS system. Also looking for new VPS hostings that are accepting BTC (https://bitcoin-vps.com/)
* Update October 27, 2022 > Almost done. Script is ready and I will publish a GitHub repository and tutorial. Still doing final tests. Will start deploying new nodes by Monday 31 (Happy Birtday BTC <3)
Current running nodes are already overloaded and DDoSed. Tweaking and testing anti DDoS features before running new ones.
*Update November 16, 2022 > Finalizing Ansible Role before running new servers. GitHub repo is online: https://github.com/RiccardoMasutti/STOR
*Update January 13, 2023 > Final tests done. Servers ready to deploy, will start tomorrow on Monday 16th.
*Update March, 2023 > The situation is critical. In touch with Tor team to understand what to do. Every node is constantly DDoSed and, because of that, useless... We need better ways to fight this attack.
*Update March 12, 2023 > Killed and deleted all the old nodes. Will start from scratch with a new anti ddos configuration and optimization. Old nodes network weight and reputation is lost. Not a problem, given the fact that the new ones will perform better.
Hostings/Networks Count:
For network diversity and stronger anonymity we should decentralize the nodes on different hostings and AS (autonomous systems). For the same reason, we should avoid providers that already attract a lot of Tor capacity.
- 1984 - 4
- Hetzner - 2
- Njalla - 3
- Host4Coins - 1
- Privex - 2
Countries/Location Count:
The same reason applies to countries.
- Iceland - 4
- Finland - 4
- Sweden - 2
- France - 1
- US - 1
Who's behind this Crowdfund:
Riccardo Masutti, independent Bitcoin researcher focused on cybersecurity and privacy. In the past I contributed to various Bitcoin projects, like Bitcoin Core, Wasabi Wallet, BTCPay Server, and many others. Currently InfoSec at Bitfinex.
You can find my social media profiles and PGP key here: https://riccardomasutti.com/
If you want to support me in another way feel free to contact me at: SaveTheOnionRouter@proton.me
Latest social campaign that I launched: #BitcoinIsSafe, a way of encouraging community members to write to the providers of antivirus software companies and demand that Bitcoin and Wasabi be labeled as “false positives". It was actually a success :)
Read more: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/wasabi-wallet-launches-bitcoinissafe-campaign-to-counter-erroneous-antivirus-detections
https://bitcoin-takeover.com/bitcoinissafe-com-keeping-bitcoin-software-clean-when-anti-virus-programs-are-dirty/
https://bitcoinissafe.com/
Save The Onion Router
Introduction
Since several months, Tor is experiencing a heavy network-wide DDoS attempt impacting the performance of the Tor network, which includes both onion services and non-onion services traffic.
Bitcoin Network, Liquid Network, Lightning Network, Electrum and many other wallets and projects rely on it heavily, so we are all affected. It means that communication is slower and more unrealiable, resulting in many failing connections and possible deanonymization attacks.
I am actively looking for ways to improve the situation. For now, I have limited myself to managing my Tor Guard/Middle Relay, which, as you can see, like other relays, has been under attack for several months and tends to go offline constantly.
Everyone uses tor but no one runs a Tor node.
Result? Few nodes already supports (with difficulties) millions of users who use this network every day. For an attacker it is not so difficult to put in difficulty those few active nodes and for this it is fundamental that anyone with technical skills or a some time, runs a Tor node, specifically a guard/middle relay.
Guide on how to run a Tor Relay: https://community.torproject.org/relay/
The Crowdfund
As I understand that not all people can afford to configure such a relay (for reasons of lack of competence, desire, time, or jurisdictional difficulties), I decided to launch this fundraising campaign to configure and manage new guard/middle relays.
On this page you can donate and choose which node you want to launch. Each hosting was selected based on these criteria:
- Accept Bitcoin payments
- It is privacy-oriented
- It has at least 1GB of Ram, 1 vCPU and a bandwidth of at least 100Mb / s (most of these, however, have at least 300 Mb / s of bandwidth)
Thanks to the transparency of Bitcoin and BTCPayServer, you will be able to see in real time all the donations made and the new configured relays (which I will add on this page in real time as soon as they are active).
I hope I can help the network and do my part in allowing everyone to have private access to an uncensored internet, Tor has become the world's strongest tool for privacy and freedom online and we must defend it.
Donations
It is possible to choose a specific VPS or to make an arbitrary donation, which will be used to add funds to the campaign and launch new nodes. Every specific VPS donation includes 1year of VPS + 20$ to avoid financial loss caused by BTC price volatility (from the moment of donation, to the purchase of the service denominated in dollars), to cover the transaction fees if the donation was made onchain, to cover the LN>onchain swap if the donation was made via Lightning Network, the time to buy, set up and manage the nodes over a 1-year period. I will use the remaining money to open anonymous Tor bridges.
PayJoin and Lightning donations are enabled.
To support my Lightning Node and allowing me to receive donations via LN, feel free to open a channel.
Public Key:
02b8c29e92f4842d06c5f6a5e8c53be29f5a6cf4bfd3c4d57d12aae3b0f2d9e10c
IP Addresses:
51.178.82.201:9735
[2001:41d0:404:200::5082]:9735
wstxzgbzof5ecpnkacm6b4ljgr5nx5xwucxc2rw53t5cqygv5c23mqad.onion:9735
1ML: https://1ml.com/node/02b8c29e92f4842d06c5f6a5e8c53be29f5a6cf4bfd3c4d57d12aae3b0f2d9e10c
Amboss: https://amboss.space/node/02b8c29e92f4842d06c5f6a5e8c53be29f5a6cf4bfd3c4d57d12aae3b0f2d9e10c
Mempool: https://mempool.space/lightning/node/02b8c29e92f4842d06c5f6a5e8c53be29f5a6cf4bfd3c4d57d12aae3b0f2d9e10c
Remember that you can also donate to Official Tor Project's team here: https://donate.torproject.org/
Donations/Nodes Running:
Full Relay Family: 63D33A5C3FA2CB4D6DC1FC5E25C320E8C448DD96
(old nodes that were running from October 2022 until March 2023 that were delete and killed will not appear here) Also bridges will not appear here.
* Update October 17, 2022 > In touch with Tor team to manage a big private donation that will be sent directly to them. Also tweaking the current servers and working on a tutorial and an automated script to permit everyone that wants to run multiple nodes in an easy and safe way.
* Update October 24, 2022 > Still testing tweaking the automatization script and anti DDoS system. Also looking for new VPS hostings that are accepting BTC (https://bitcoin-vps.com/)
* Update October 27, 2022 > Almost done. Script is ready and I will publish a GitHub repository and tutorial. Still doing final tests. Will start deploying new nodes by Monday 31 (Happy Birtday BTC <3)
Current running nodes are already overloaded and DDoSed. Tweaking and testing anti DDoS features before running new ones.
*Update November 16, 2022 > Finalizing Ansible Role before running new servers. GitHub repo is online: https://github.com/RiccardoMasutti/STOR
*Update January 13, 2023 > Final tests done. Servers ready to deploy, will start tomorrow on Monday 16th.
*Update March, 2023 > The situation is critical. In touch with Tor team to understand what to do. Every node is constantly DDoSed and, because of that, useless... We need better ways to fight this attack.
*Update March 12, 2023 > Killed and deleted all the old nodes. Will start from scratch with a new anti ddos configuration and optimization. Old nodes network weight and reputation is lost. Not a problem, given the fact that the new ones will perform better.
Hostings/Networks Count:
For network diversity and stronger anonymity we should decentralize the nodes on different hostings and AS (autonomous systems). For the same reason, we should avoid providers that already attract a lot of Tor capacity.
- 1984 - 4
- Hetzner - 2
- Njalla - 3
- Host4Coins - 1
- Privex - 2
Countries/Location Count:
The same reason applies to countries.
- Iceland - 4
- Finland - 4
- Sweden - 2
- France - 1
- US - 1
Who's behind this Crowdfund:
Riccardo Masutti, independent Bitcoin researcher focused on cybersecurity and privacy. In the past I contributed to various Bitcoin projects, like Bitcoin Core, Wasabi Wallet, BTCPay Server, and many others. Currently InfoSec at Bitfinex.
You can find my social media profiles and PGP key here: https://riccardomasutti.com/
If you want to support me in another way feel free to contact me at: SaveTheOnionRouter@proton.me
Latest social campaign that I launched: #BitcoinIsSafe, a way of encouraging community members to write to the providers of antivirus software companies and demand that Bitcoin and Wasabi be labeled as “false positives". It was actually a success :)
Read more: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/wasabi-wallet-launches-bitcoinissafe-campaign-to-counter-erroneous-antivirus-detections
https://bitcoin-takeover.com/bitcoinissafe-com-keeping-bitcoin-software-clean-when-anti-virus-programs-are-dirty/
https://bitcoinissafe.com/