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I'm just throwing an idea out here. It is often stated that running Tor exit nodes is both costly and dangerous. For understandable reasons. Yet the network nee

I'm just throwing an idea out here. It is often stated that running Tor exit nodes is both costly and dangerous. For understandable reasons. Yet the network needs more such nodes, to defeat the scenario of one powerful entity operating hundreds of exit nodes. It would be nice if even ordinary Tor users can run transient exit nodes. Now as it stands, nobody will do it. So why not change the functionality of Tor such that it becomes possible for a user to operate an exit node for a whitelisted list of sites (either based on IP or domain names) that they are willing to funnel traffic for? It's still better than giving up and letting a majority of exit nodes be controlled by state actors and other powerful entities right? Serving traffic only for a set of white-listed endpoints can considerably reduce the risk of running afoul of local law enforcement. I realise this effectively cripples Tor, but normal "uncensored" exit nodes can still operate, by those willing to run them.

zingmars 8y ago
I've seen this idea thrown around in Tor mailing lists as well. The developers basically replied that while they're not happy about how Tor is used by some people, if they started censoring some things, they would eventually be required to censor others. At that point, what is really the point of Tor - just chain some VPNs together.
- Santosh83 8y ago
  The point would be the stronger anonymity offered by Tor, whereas with VPNs, you're basically at the mercy of the service providers not to keep logs. Also the developers needn't censor anything but merely build in a mechanism that individual node operators can use or not as they see fit. Like adblock lists, the lists themselves would presumably be made and circulated by interested individuals, and nothing to do with Tor devs. Anyway, thinking further, I realised even a whitelist can be bypassed in various ways to do illegal stuff, so you'd still need to be quite prepared and legally informed before running an Exit node. :-(

zingmars 8y ago

I've seen this idea thrown around in Tor mailing lists as well. The developers basically replied that while they're not happy about how Tor is used by some people, if they started censoring some things, they would eventually be required to censor others. At that point, what is really the point of Tor - just chain some VPNs together.

Santosh83 8y ago
The point would be the stronger anonymity offered by Tor, whereas with VPNs, you're basically at the mercy of the service providers not to keep logs. Also the developers needn't censor anything but merely build in a mechanism that individual node operators can use or not as they see fit. Like adblock lists, the lists themselves would presumably be made and circulated by interested individuals, and nothing to do with Tor devs. Anyway, thinking further, I realised even a whitelist can be bypassed in various ways to do illegal stuff, so you'd still need to be quite prepared and legally informed before running an Exit node. :-(