It was a long read but worth it. Network privacy is much more complicated than I realized. I guess I'll use Tribler and a VPN combined for more layers of obscuring what I'm downloading.
Comments on A privacy review of Tribler, the onion-routed BitTorrent app
Anth0rx
Tribler is definitely an interesting project, but the things you pointed out in your review are very worth mentioning and I thought about those problems as well. You summarized the key elements regarding privacy while using Tribler in this outstanding article. Thank you very much for that.
Have you ever had a look at other privacy-focused peer-to-peer projects with file sharing capabilities like Lokinet (https://lokinet.org/), I2P in combination with I2PSnark or XD (https://github.com/majestrate/XD) or GNUnet (https://www.gnunet.org/en/)? I really would look forward if you shared your opinion on those projects.
Hi Anth0rx, yes — I’ve looked into all of them. Here are some hot-takes:
Loginet is just a front for a cryptocurrency. It’s decentralized but not distributed. It’s primary purpose is to selling you hot air, though.
I2P can only talk to other I2P users. There are far from enough users on it to reliably use it for P2P. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, it just never reached critical mass. The set-up process is probably too complicated for most potential users.
GNUnet has been “fixing the internet” for literally two decades. They‘ve yet to deliver anything. The software download pages clearly warns that it’s still “not yet ready”. It’s an interesting project, but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
Anonymous
I think it is time to update this article with new version review
The project change log does not indicate any work on any of the things discussed in this article. I might revisit this after the next beta release.
Robert