Monero: Option Use proxy/Tor/I2P for everything

[throwawow581]

In Bitcoin-qt you can use Socks proxy such as Tor for everything. It would be great if you could do that with Monero too!

[boldsuck]

As far as I know, this is intentional in order to make a Sybil attack more difficult or expensive. The same applies to IPv6.

[throwawow581]

Hm, how does proxy/darknet support make sybil attacks easier? Or IPv6?

[boldsuck]

Rent a server and try order 1000 IPv4. ;-) One IPv4 ~ 1Eur/Month
IPs are only awarded if they conform to RIPE guidelines. That means, they need a technical reason why the IPs are needed. It's difficult to get one IPv4/24 Subnet - 254 usable IPv4 Addresses. https://www.ripe.net/manage-ips-and-asns/ipv4
RIPE, ARIN, APNIC, LACNIC IPv4 have been sold out for years! I think AFRINIC still has some.

One IPv4 and a whole IPv6/64 subnet are included with a hosted server. Usually, up to 31 additional IPv4s can be ordered for dedicated servers.
1 IPv6/64 subnet = 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 IPv6 addresses. :-)
On a server with enough RAM you can have dozens of Tor instances and each with hundreds of hidden services. You can have a total of 65,535 TCP Ports. (One IPv4 can have a maximum of 2 Tor instances/relays.)
A few beefy EPYC or Power9 machines could be enough. https://community.xmr.to/network/

[throwawow581]

Hm. I see. But I really think that omitting IPv6 support is not a sustainable way to fight sybil attacks. IPv6 is the future of internet. I think there are already ISPs in certain countries that do not provide IPv4 access.

Providing full proxy/Tor support would be good for additional privacy and Monero is focused on privacy.

[boldsuck]

I run some Tor and Monero nodes, but I have nothing to do with the Monero development.
Sending transactions through Tor/I2P is fully supported. In monero-wallet-gui, monero-wallet-cli (Socks5 proxy support) and monerod (tx-proxy, anonymous-inbound).
P2P blockchain sync data can be viewed in any blockchain explorer anyway. It makes no difference whether this is done via Tor or clearnet. Monero blockchain data does not contain any private information. Deeponion does the opposite. ROFL - P2P sync over Tor but a public rich list!
(_Tor is slower and don't forget the many ¹bad relays this year. A trusted relay setup has long been discussed on the Tor relay list._)

Monero is a participation community: We need more nodes offering Tor/I2P P2P peer ports anonymous-inbound and IPv6. Monerod support IPv4/6 and monero-wallet-gui support IPv6 remote nodes since v0.16.0.3.
Far too few people configure IPv6 also in the Tor network. Less than 40% in the Tor network I have been encouraging other Tor relay operators for many months. RIPE NCC Community Projects Fund supported the Tor project and more IPv6 ORPort relays can be expected in the next few months. Dir-Address will probably remain IPv4-only for a long time to come. :-( For me IPv6 is self-evident for years. In r/Monero I always specify all configs with IPv6.

Why Kovri is not being further developed and how things were about Tor and I2P can best be found on IRC log and be further discussed with the devs in the channel.

¹
malicious-tor-relays
>600 Tor relays
I reported a rerouting exit relay a few weeks ago

[denisgoddard]

It makes no difference whether this is done via Tor or clearnet

I could easily imagine having compelling reasons to hide the fact that you are syncing Monero blocks. I mean, in some places it's literally illegal to be gay or take medicinal herbs. Don't underestimate the stupidity and brutality of people with virtually unlimited power.