[tor-talk] Full integration with bitcoin (suggestion / feature request)

[Speak Freely]

There are tons of problems with the suggestion, IMMHO.

Good read:
https://blog.torproject.org/category/tags/bitcoin

I have very strong reservations about anyone suggesting internet fast
lanes, or pay to play lanes.

I run my relays for everyone, equally. If someone is poor, that doesn't
mean they are any less important. For the purposes of Tor, chances are
poor people match more closely to Tor's project goals. Based entirely on
nothing but a guess, I would expect a poor person to be more willing, or
more inclined to be a whistle blower, or more interested in political
change, or more dedicated to social improvement, over a debutante
dilettante. A very well off white guy in middle America suburbia has
nothing to lose provided the status quo remains. A very poor person has
nothing to gain from the status quo, so would tend to try to improve
themselves, and others.

It would also introduce fascinating attack vectors, as it would be
relatively easy to determine who the "poor" people are vs who the "rich"
people are, based simply on what a particular relay charges for it's
service. The reduced anonymity set would present interesting problems.

Assuming your numbers, at today's rate, 0.001BTC would be $0.23USD/MB
($0.28 for us Canadians).
$0.23/MB at 100GB/day = $23,000/day
$0.23/MB at 3TB(100GB*30)/month = $690,000/month
That's a disturbingly good ROI, considering the cost for the operator
would be anywhere between $3-15/month.
(For a rich person to download a 1GB file, it would cost them $230.)


Finally, attempting to monetize a system that is currently free as in
beer, would not necessarily bring out the best in people. Sure, some
operators would run their relays for free, but many wouldn't. When
certain people realize that they could monetize the relay, what's to
stop them from sniffing the data to make even more money?


BUT, what do I know. Read the blog, it's much better written than my
gibberish regarding this topic.



Matt
Speak Freely