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Not to excuse the behavior here, but anyone else who would like to run a Tor exit node can learn from this situation. Follow the best practices[0] for running

Not to excuse the behavior here, but anyone else who would like to run a Tor exit node can learn from this situation. Follow the best practices[0] for running an exit node, which would include not running it from your home. You are much less likely to be raided and arrested if a cloud server in a datacenter somewhere, leased by an anonymous LLC you control, is the subject of an investigation. [0] https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
elastic_church 10y ago
and speaking of anonymous LLC's, I know a registered agent that takes cryptocurrency for several years so now you can email him anonymously over TOR, and pay his bitcoin invoices Shapeshifting some Monero I also checked the Panama Papers and none of those entities they filed for me appeared in the leak, but even in the off chance they did, you wouldn't be associated. GreenCloudVPS also takes cryptocurrency. and finally, there is at least one jurisdiction in the world that still offers legit bearer share companies which require no registration. And your entity no longer needs a banking relationship to acquire goods and services.
- igk 10y ago
  >and finally, there is at least one jurisdiction in the world that still offers legit bearer share companies which require no registration. And your entity no longer needs a banking relationship to acquire goods and services. what does this mean? what is a bearer share company? and which jurisdictions would that be?
  - seanp2k2 10y ago
    I read this as a "to really understand this if you need to actually consider doing it, one must do their own research on the matter" weed-out-while-still-confirming-type responses.
  - schoen 10y ago
    > what is a bearer share company? A bearer instrument is an instrument which states that it is owned/controlled/usable/valid for the benefit of whoever possesses it, and normally doesn't rely on registering that ownership with an authority. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_instrument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_instrument A bearer share company is a company that doesn't know or register who owns it. If, at a particular moment, you own the physical certificates that connote ownership, you own the company.
- daheza 10y ago
  But how do you get the bitcoins without giving someone a credit card / debit account? It's a part of the chain that seems like it could all be traced back to one person. Person A buys bitcoins using their credit card. The bitcoins are then used to pay for the VPS. Are there any only bitcoin marketplaces that accept gift cards?
  - Qub3d 10y ago
    Bitcoin tumblers [0] are a thing: [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency_tumbler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency_tumbler
  - TylerE 10y ago
    Rob someone on LocalBitcoins, obviously.
  - elastic_church 10y ago
    Just buy the bitcoin. The objective is to unlink the transaction later. Using cryptocurrency should be a completely benign action, and if there's any ounce of thought in your mind that makes you think it is an admission of "I'm doing something sketchy", then that's more reason to buy cryptocurrency and use it everywhere for completely benign things. Just like most contrived trends, you do it ironically until it is an actual habit. For unlinking, Monero (cryptonote technology) is the private cryptocurrency to use today. The primary different between competitors is that Monero is private by default. Other 'private cryptocurrencies' are public by default with an optional privacy gimmick (see mixers, Dash, Zcash). Transparency is the optional gimmick in cryptonote. You want to keep a balance of Monero, and use services like Shapeshift, over TOR, to pay for invoices priced in bitcoin. Exchanges like Kraken allow you to buy Monero directly nowadays with USD. So bitcoin isn't part of this equation anymore, the network effects supporting bitcoin's incumbency were extremely overstated. But if that infrastructure isn't yet available in your area, buy Monero on an altcoin exhcange after buying bitcoin. Or even shapeshift Bitcoin for Monero, just to top up your balance. This is the separation of cash and state, so don't worry about what they think, this is a parallel infrastructure that doesn't leverage their financial institutions.
  - ithought 10y ago
radarsat1 10y ago
If you actually think you run a high risk of being raided for your behaviour, is it ethical to put some poor saps running your data center in that position instead of you? Admittedly, I guess data centers run this risk automatically by the fact of providing data storage/transfer services.
- scott_karana 10y ago
  It's also ethical to warn the data centre of your intentions, if their ToS doesn't explicitly exclude Tor exits already.
- nbraud 10y ago
  I am involved in a non-profit that operates Tor exit nodes for a while ( https://nos-oignons.net https://nos-oignons.net ), and before then I was running exit nodes on my own. The main benefit of setting up a non-profit is not shifting the risk to “the poor saps in the data center”: the police isn't going to kick down the door of the datacenter any more than they would raid your ISP. The main benefit is that you get listed as abuse contact, and you get contacted the same way an ISP gets contacted: you get a somewhat-polite email (or a fax <3) asking who that IP address belongs to. At that point, you can explain what Tor is and that you do not know the origin of the connection; somehow, it's more difficult to have that conversation when you are in an interrogation room, talking to someone likely believes you are guilty.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

elastic_church 10y ago

and speaking of anonymous LLC's, I know a registered agent that takes cryptocurrency for several years so now you can email him anonymously over TOR, and pay his bitcoin invoices Shapeshifting some Monero I also checked the Panama Papers and none of those entities they filed for me appeared in the leak, but even in the off chance they did, you wouldn't be associated. GreenCloudVPS also takes cryptocurrency. and finally, there is at least one jurisdiction in the world that still offers legit bearer share companies which require no registration. And your entity no longer needs a banking relationship to acquire goods and services.

igk 10y ago
>and finally, there is at least one jurisdiction in the world that still offers legit bearer share companies which require no registration. And your entity no longer needs a banking relationship to acquire goods and services. what does this mean? what is a bearer share company? and which jurisdictions would that be?
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  I read this as a "to really understand this if you need to actually consider doing it, one must do their own research on the matter" weed-out-while-still-confirming-type responses.
- schoen 10y ago
  > what is a bearer share company? A bearer instrument is an instrument which states that it is owned/controlled/usable/valid for the benefit of whoever possesses it, and normally doesn't rely on registering that ownership with an authority. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_instrument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_instrument A bearer share company is a company that doesn't know or register who owns it. If, at a particular moment, you own the physical certificates that connote ownership, you own the company.
daheza 10y ago
But how do you get the bitcoins without giving someone a credit card / debit account? It's a part of the chain that seems like it could all be traced back to one person. Person A buys bitcoins using their credit card. The bitcoins are then used to pay for the VPS. Are there any only bitcoin marketplaces that accept gift cards?
- Qub3d 10y ago
  Bitcoin tumblers [0] are a thing: [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency_tumbler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency_tumbler
- TylerE 10y ago
  Rob someone on LocalBitcoins, obviously.
- elastic_church 10y ago
  Just buy the bitcoin. The objective is to unlink the transaction later. Using cryptocurrency should be a completely benign action, and if there's any ounce of thought in your mind that makes you think it is an admission of "I'm doing something sketchy", then that's more reason to buy cryptocurrency and use it everywhere for completely benign things. Just like most contrived trends, you do it ironically until it is an actual habit. For unlinking, Monero (cryptonote technology) is the private cryptocurrency to use today. The primary different between competitors is that Monero is private by default. Other 'private cryptocurrencies' are public by default with an optional privacy gimmick (see mixers, Dash, Zcash). Transparency is the optional gimmick in cryptonote. You want to keep a balance of Monero, and use services like Shapeshift, over TOR, to pay for invoices priced in bitcoin. Exchanges like Kraken allow you to buy Monero directly nowadays with USD. So bitcoin isn't part of this equation anymore, the network effects supporting bitcoin's incumbency were extremely overstated. But if that infrastructure isn't yet available in your area, buy Monero on an altcoin exhcange after buying bitcoin. Or even shapeshift Bitcoin for Monero, just to top up your balance. This is the separation of cash and state, so don't worry about what they think, this is a parallel infrastructure that doesn't leverage their financial institutions.
- ithought 10y ago

radarsat1 10y ago

If you actually think you run a high risk of being raided for your behaviour, is it ethical to put some poor saps running your data center in that position instead of you? Admittedly, I guess data centers run this risk automatically by the fact of providing data storage/transfer services.

scott_karana 10y ago
It's also ethical to warn the data centre of your intentions, if their ToS doesn't explicitly exclude Tor exits already.
nbraud 10y ago
I am involved in a non-profit that operates Tor exit nodes for a while ( https://nos-oignons.net https://nos-oignons.net ), and before then I was running exit nodes on my own. The main benefit of setting up a non-profit is not shifting the risk to “the poor saps in the data center”: the police isn't going to kick down the door of the datacenter any more than they would raid your ISP. The main benefit is that you get listed as abuse contact, and you get contacted the same way an ISP gets contacted: you get a somewhat-polite email (or a fax <3) asking who that IP address belongs to. At that point, you can explain what Tor is and that you do not know the origin of the connection; somehow, it's more difficult to have that conversation when you are in an interrogation room, talking to someone likely believes you are guilty.