TorMass: Tor for the Masses Domestic and Monetized Anonymous Communication
Ali Shoker · Procedia Computer Science · 2021
The increasing demand on privacy is driving a notable quest for privacy legal instruments and practical techniques. The Onion Router (Tor) is considered the most practical service for anonymous public communications; however, it is not yet mainstream despite more than one decade of practical use and research. The reason is referred to using message encryption layers, i.e., onions, via relays offered through unknown volunteers which does not fully protect legitimate users nor services. It can also be used for illegal purposes which hampers its admissibility in many countries. In this paper, we introduce a new ecosystem built on top of Tor to broaden its use by legitimate users and at the same time provide provenance when users violate the usage policy terms. We propose Anonymity Service Providers that provide paid relays as a service to users. A user buys this service from different providers to diversify the onion circuit and avoid collude and thus disclosing her identity. Anonymity is maintained as long as the user abides to the policy; otherwise, her identity is disclosed via a reporting system. This accountability reporting system can be implemented over a Smart Contract to make arbitration automatic. This work proposes new use cases and business opportunities that are worth consideration by both the research and business communities.