
Kovri – A secure, private, untraceable C++ implementation of the I2P network - kim0
https://github.com/monero-project/kovri
======
ringaroundthetx
One thing I love about cryptocurrencies is that it has created an economic
incentive to accelerate hardening of internet communication.

I wager that TOR would still be extremely slow without the dark net markets
and payment rails.

The I2P stewards have similarly has been affiliated with several
cryptocurrency projects. But The Monero team's Kovri implementation of I2P
will be the best.

~~~
arpstick
Tor is fast because they have a birds eye view of the entire routing
concensous where as i2p does not as it can not. The latency suffers as a
result in i2p. That is why tor is faster, it's not because of coins.

I have considered adding such a thing for i2pd optionally enabled but there is
no such interest from the community to maintain such entities.

~~~
apeace
Don't you think that clients' peer selection logic could be improved to build
lower-latency tunnels? Perhaps an intuitive UI could be provided, allowing the
user to tradeoff anonymity with latency.

~~~
arpstick
I have such functionality in i2pd, what would help a lot are more hints on
capacity bandwith and latency from the network. I added "aligned outbound
tunnels" which make things MUCH more responsive and snappy. i think that
lowering the latency on the network is probably the only way to make i2p
faster again.

~~~
apeace
Can you contact me via:
[https://apeace.github.io/contact.html](https://apeace.github.io/contact.html)

I've been reading the i2pd source the past few weeks and would love to pick
your brain over a couple of emails!

~~~
arpstick
sent

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ilaksh
It's not really fun to be down voted constantly but I guess I can't help but
share my beliefs.

What we need more than a 0% trust and 100% anonymity is just a decentralized
internet where so many nodes are not controlled by centralized organizations.

So while I2P and Monero etc are great, I think we can replace banks and credit
card payments for most things with less stringent requirements.

~~~
finnn
sounds like you might like cjdns

------
dangerface
I don't get it they took I2P and just renamed it, why do people care about
this? Their faq says "Kovri has become a unique, actively-developed,
community-driven C++ I2P implementation with many improvements, security
enhancements, and new features over its predecessor."

They claim its unique, cool whats unique about it? What are these
improvements, security enhancements and new features? Would it not make more
sense to list the new improvements, security enhancements and features? Their
table "What does Kovri do/not do for you?" shows it can do everything I2P can
do and nothing else, unless I am missing something.

Call me paranoid but renaming another project and then, marketing it as more
secure and trustworthy without proof is what dodgy fuckers do.

~~~
pebx
Do your research before fucking other people, dude.

i2pd has been abandonned by their devs for roughly 6 months and they have not
been available at all. Since the Monero team believed, i2p would be better
than Tor, they forked i2pd to Kovri and started cleaning up the code and
fixing bugs. Why not the official i2p Java client? Because of Java, which is
not common in secure environments, fucks up Proxy settings or just ignores
them eg.

------
omio
With the recent bust of AlphaBay we know bitcoin mixers are vulnerable. It
looks like Monero will take over as the favorite cryptocurrency of new markets
especially with I2P integration.

~~~
X86BSD
I support your theory. For whatever that's worth. I've put some of my assets
into Monero instead of other alt coins. When I researched the landscape of
crypto currencies IMO Monero was best of breed regarding anonymity, privacy,
and cryptography theory. Now of course time will tell if the bullet points of
Monero regarding untraceable privacy hold true or not but from everything I've
read that's the crypto coin I'm parking my Fiat in.

~~~
fsiefken
Just curious what made you opt for monero instead of dash or zcash?

~~~
pebx
I can tell you my reasons, but it's mainly the mandatory privacy, where every
single transaction has to use RingCT and helps to protect the privacy of the
whole network.

Zcash's very computing expensive shielded transactions are rarely used and no
GUI (and mobile) wallets simply offer them. You can see this in their block
explorer:
[https://explorer.zcha.in/transactions](https://explorer.zcha.in/transactions)
Here is some more information on their own forum: [https://forum.z.cash/t/low-
percentage-of-total-shielded-zec-...](https://forum.z.cash/t/low-percentage-
of-total-shielded-zec-as-indicator-of-lack-of-interest/12888/10) Most
exchanges also don't accept shielded Zcash deposits/withdrawals.

DASH's private send is just similar to a bitcoin mixer and takes even more
than 24 hours to finish, since the Masternodes have to wait for mixing
partners for you. This mixing creates a shitload of transactions on chain, it
were around 70 when I tested it lately and that's a huge overhead. That are
probably the (main) reasons why it's rarely used and since Chainalysis,
Blockseer and all the Bitcoin tracking companies have no troubles to track
mixed transactions, like they did with Wanna Cry, I think it's only a matter
of time to extend them for DASH with more adoption:
[https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-exchange-
shapeshift-h...](https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-exchange-shapeshift-
helps-police-as-wannacry-attacker-converts-to-monero)

Summarising optional privacy makes where almost no one uses it, makes you
suspect just for opting in for the privacy feature. It's also much easier to
track just the few percent of private transactions by design.

~~~
X86BSD
You pretty much summed up my opinions as well. I view DASH like I view linux
containers. They are taking something NOT designed to be secure and
private/anonymous and _trying_ to retroactively bolt on anonymity and security
to the existing bitcoin tech. Which is NOT now you secure something. It has to
be designed in from the get go not baked in after the fact.

This is the problem with all the so called "secure anonymous" coins I looked
at until I read up on Monero and how it works. Security and anonymity is baked
in by design, not retrofitted after the fact which never works.

So as far as I can tell Monero is the only one that has this right. Now,
again, time will tell if their technology choices actually deliver what they
say it will deliver regarding anonymity and security.

But for now it's the only game in town as far as I am concerned.

------
anomie31
How does this compare to i2pd, a more mature C++ implementation of I2P?

~~~
Kr4ken
The FAQ answers this: [https://github.com/monero-project/kovri-
docs/blob/master/i18...](https://github.com/monero-project/kovri-
docs/blob/master/i18n/en/faq.md)

~~~
snvzz
Yet this is just one side of the split.

------
jameskegel
The Monero Team is doing lots of cool things, and the proactive security
testing they do is comforting. I'm excited to see what this brings to the
project, and I applaud the devs for their hard work.

------
jancsika
I don't understand-- what's the significance of an re-implementation of I2P in
a memory unsafe language?

Also-- why all the comments about Monero? Is it the only altcoin that supports
I2P?

~~~
72deluxe
Hey I write memory safe C++ - do others not? Only ignoring RAII and move
semantics will give you unsafe code.

------
mtgx
Too bad they couldn't build it in anything safer than C++.

------
fulafel
If the first adjective is "secure", how to reconcile this with C++?

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heja_bruh
This is why I've lost respect for lots of developers. I mean why the heck
would someone re-implement a piece of code in memory unsafe language? We've a
better language now, but this habit isn't dying very soon...

~~~
ksrm
Your account is 2 hours old and _all_ of your comments consist of you
complaining about C++/proselytising Rust. Please stop trolling.

~~~
heja_bruh
What makes you think I'm trolling? Honestly, I'm tired of all these mediocre
devs just pushing their keyboards in some inefficient, unsafe language and are
totally unaware of the alternatives. If I'm showing them a greater
alternative, am I trolling on this site? Can you show a single reply where I
spoke something that doesn't holds true? I accept that there are certain
opinions of every individuals that are not ought to match, certain
disagreements and other things, but you should respect mine too.

~~~
pebx
Rust is god. We got it. Now come back to topic...

Btw. are we already again in these HTML / Flash wars where the second one was
shilled as the only possible future for websites and incoming death for HTML?
Oh wait, children can't even remember it... Search for it on Wikipedia (or
probably even a printed encyclopedia).

