4 ms·

I was curious to see if it is possible to donate funds towards the operation of "safe" (eg, non government controlled) exit/bridge nodes. According to the dona

by jontas 10y ago

I was curious to see if it is possible to donate funds towards the operation of "safe" (eg, non government controlled) exit/bridge nodes. According to the donation faq for the tor project[1], it appears that funds are not used for infrastructure. If there were a way to fund exit nodes without running one myself I would definitely be interested in participating. If not, this might be a great idea for a crowdfunding campaign. [1] The Tor Project spends about $2.5 million annually. About 80% of the Tor Project's spending goes on staffing, mostly software engineers. About 10% goes towards administrative costs such as accounting and legal costs and bank fees. The remaining 10% is spent on travel, meetings and conferences, which are important for Tor because the Tor community is global. https://www.torproject.org/donate/donor-faq.html.en https://www.torproject.org/donate/donor-faq.html.en

garrettr_ 10y ago
If you want to donate towards the operation of "safe" exit/bridge nodes, consider donating to NoiseTor: http://noisetor.net/ http://noisetor.net/.
garrettgrimsley 10y ago
In addition to NoiseTor that @garrettr_ mentioned there is torservers.net [0]. Both are mentioned [1] as ways to support infrastructure by the Tor Project. [0] https://www.torservers.net/donate.html https://www.torservers.net/donate.html [1] https://blog.torproject.org/blog/support-tor-network-donate-exit-node-providers https://blog.torproject.org/blog/support-tor-network-donate-...
ivarv 10y ago
You can support Riseup who run exit node(s). https://help.riseup.net/en/donate https://help.riseup.net/en/donate
sandworm101 10y ago
I think the Tor project would agree with me in saying that donations are all well and good, but the best way to contribute is to operate a high-capacity node.
- unimpressive 10y ago
  Really, you'd turn down say, a thousand dollars of donations toward exit nodes and bridges? http://lesswrong.com/lw/65/money_the_unit_of_caring/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/65/money_the_unit_of_caring/
  - throwaway7767 10y ago
    This is not about moral philosophy, but practical matters. Tor's anonymity depends on diverse ownership of the running relays. As it stands, the organizations accepting donations to run Tor relays (torservers, noisetor, etc) already control a sizeable chunk of the total relays, and that's why the Tor project would rather encourage people to run their own. Of course, many people can't or don't want to run an exit node. In that case, it's much better to donate to those organizations than to do nothing. But the Tor exit relays are not soup kitchens, and increased security for the Tor network due to more diversified operator group is not easily convertible to a dollar value.
    - mst 10y ago
      Perhaps the answer here is to have a donation receiving autonomous corporation on etherium that then provisions the nodes automatically. Note: I'm aware that'd be a lot of effort to set up and might not even work, but the idea seems fascinating in theory.
      - unimpressive 10y ago
        The underlying hardware of the provisioned nodes would still be under the control of easily-bugged machines in large datacenters from the perspective of government level actors.
  - tedks 10y ago
    Yes, the Tor Project effectively did this for years, since no organization or organizational structure existed to take your sanctimonious "unit of caring" and turn it into geographically disparate non-colluding exit bandwidth. Sometimes the real world, or "territory," is more complicated than the "map" you find over at Less Wrong. Take a minute to ponder this in between the daily Neoreactionary Discussion Group and the hourly Why Aren't More Women Rationalists/Rationalist Pickup Artistry thread.
xorcist 10y ago
Donate to torservers.net. They are well known, frequent hacker meetings and partner up with other organizations in this space.
pfg 10y ago
OnionTip[1] allows you to send BTC to relay operators that publish their bitcoin address as part of their contact details. [1]: https://oniontip.com/ https://oniontip.com/

by jontas 10y ago

garrettr_ 10y ago

If you want to donate towards the operation of "safe" exit/bridge nodes, consider donating to NoiseTor: http://noisetor.net/ http://noisetor.net/.

garrettgrimsley 10y ago

In addition to NoiseTor that @garrettr_ mentioned there is torservers.net [0]. Both are mentioned [1] as ways to support infrastructure by the Tor Project. [0] https://www.torservers.net/donate.html https://www.torservers.net/donate.html [1] https://blog.torproject.org/blog/support-tor-network-donate-exit-node-providers https://blog.torproject.org/blog/support-tor-network-donate-...

ivarv 10y ago

You can support Riseup who run exit node(s). https://help.riseup.net/en/donate https://help.riseup.net/en/donate

sandworm101 10y ago

I think the Tor project would agree with me in saying that donations are all well and good, but the best way to contribute is to operate a high-capacity node.

unimpressive 10y ago
Really, you'd turn down say, a thousand dollars of donations toward exit nodes and bridges? http://lesswrong.com/lw/65/money_the_unit_of_caring/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/65/money_the_unit_of_caring/
- throwaway7767 10y ago
  This is not about moral philosophy, but practical matters. Tor's anonymity depends on diverse ownership of the running relays. As it stands, the organizations accepting donations to run Tor relays (torservers, noisetor, etc) already control a sizeable chunk of the total relays, and that's why the Tor project would rather encourage people to run their own. Of course, many people can't or don't want to run an exit node. In that case, it's much better to donate to those organizations than to do nothing. But the Tor exit relays are not soup kitchens, and increased security for the Tor network due to more diversified operator group is not easily convertible to a dollar value.
  - mst 10y ago
    Perhaps the answer here is to have a donation receiving autonomous corporation on etherium that then provisions the nodes automatically. Note: I'm aware that'd be a lot of effort to set up and might not even work, but the idea seems fascinating in theory.
    - unimpressive 10y ago
      The underlying hardware of the provisioned nodes would still be under the control of easily-bugged machines in large datacenters from the perspective of government level actors.
- tedks 10y ago
  Yes, the Tor Project effectively did this for years, since no organization or organizational structure existed to take your sanctimonious "unit of caring" and turn it into geographically disparate non-colluding exit bandwidth. Sometimes the real world, or "territory," is more complicated than the "map" you find over at Less Wrong. Take a minute to ponder this in between the daily Neoreactionary Discussion Group and the hourly Why Aren't More Women Rationalists/Rationalist Pickup Artistry thread.

xorcist 10y ago

Donate to torservers.net. They are well known, frequent hacker meetings and partner up with other organizations in this space.

pfg 10y ago

OnionTip[1] allows you to send BTC to relay operators that publish their bitcoin address as part of their contact details. [1]: https://oniontip.com/ https://oniontip.com/