[tor-relays] Call for discussion: turning funding into more exit relays

[Roger Dingledine]

On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 10:49:49AM -0400, Sam Whited wrote:
> Perhaps only registered companies should be sponsored ??? as much as I
> hate to limit the scope of the project, I think this (might) prevent
> abuse to a certain extent. Individuals who wanted to run an exit relay
> of their own could still do so, they would just have to use some of
> the money to form an LLC (or whatever their countries equivalent is if
> the scope of this project extends outside of the US).

I think encouraging people to create an organization around their exit(s)
is fine, but ultimately I'd prefer to leave it up to them how they want
to organize.

For example, there are several exits running in great hosting locations
based on handshake agreements with a friend at the ISP. That seems at
least as stable as somebody who sets up an LLC to pay some ISP whose
abuse department doesn't know or care about Tor. Ideally we'd have both.

> > I think we should aim to constrain ourselves to talking about >=100mbit
> > exits
> 
> I disagree; as others have said, lots of 10mbit relays will do as much
> for the network as a few 100mbit relays. Most peoples use case is
> simply checking email, browsing the web, reading news, etc. which
> don't necessarily need a huge 100mbit relay.

Remember that there are 500000+ Tor clients running now, with only 3000
relays (and considering weights, it's way less than 3000). So while
10mbit should indeed be enough for most clients, if you try to squeeze
500 clients through a 10mbit connection, it works way way less well than
squeezing them through a 100mbit connection.

The "small pipe" issue is exacerbated by our end-to-end flow control
issues:
http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#pets2011-defenestrator
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/4486

> Consider asking some of the faster / more stable non-exit relay
> operators as well. Many of these folks (myself included) have run an
> exit relay at one point or another and stopped???or want to run an exit
> but won't???because of the financial burden, or because of legal
> ramifications, etc.

Good idea. Once I catch up with all the private mails from exit relay
operators (yay), I'll send out another burst to the operators of large
non-exit relays.

--Roger