Shoalsteed
commented
2 years ago Comparisons There are many other projects working on anonymous communication and the Invisible Internet Project has been inspired by much of their efforts. This is not a comprehensive list of anonymity resources - both freehaven's Anonymity Bibliography and GNUnet's related projects serve that purpose well. That said, a few systems stand out for further comparison. The following have individual comparison pages:
How to Connect to the I2P Network
The Invisible Internet Project provides software to download that connects you to the network. The installer includes a router that introduces and maintains a connection with the network. It also provides a handful of applications and configuration options to get you started and personalize your experience.
What Can I Do On The I2P Network? I2P provides an application layer that allows people to use and create familiar apps for daily use. I2P provides its own unique DNS so that you can self host or mirror content on the network. You can create and own your own platform that you can add to the I2P directory or only invite your friends. The I2P network functions the same way the Internet does. The Java software includes a BitTorrent client, and email as well as a static website template. Other applications can easily be added to your router console.
An Overview of the Network
Cryptography is used to achieve a variety of properties for the tunnels it builds and the communications it transports. Tunnels use transports, NTCP2 and SSU2, that protect the contents of the traffic being transported over it. Connections are encrypted from router-to-router, and from client-to-client(end-to-end). Forward-secrecy is provided for all connections. I2P network addresses are self-authenticating and only belong to the user who generated them.
The I2P network is a secure and traffic protecting Internet-like layer. The network is made up of peers ("routers") and unidirectional inbound and outbound virtual tunnels. Routers communicate with each other using protocols built on existing transport mechanisms (TCP, UDP, etc), passing messages. Client applications have their own cryptographic identifier ("Destination") which enables it to send and receive messages. These clients can connect to any router and authorize the temporary allocation ("lease") of some tunnels that will be used for sending and receiving messages through the network. I2P has its own internal network database (using a modification of the Kademlia DHT) for distributing routing and contact information securely.
Is the I2P Network Decentralized?
The I2P network is almost completely decentralized, with exception to what are called "Reseed Servers," which is how you first join the network. This is to deal with the DHT ( Distributed Hash Table ) bootstrap problem. Basically, there's not a good and reliable way to get out of running at least one permanent bootstrap node that non-network users can find to get started. Once you're connected to the network, you only discover peers by building "exploratory" tunnels, but to make your initial connection, you need to get a peer set from somewhere. The reseed servers, which you can see listed on http://127.0.0.1:7657/configreseed in the Java I2P router, provide you with those peers. You then connect to them with the I2P router until you find one who you can reach and build exploratory tunnels through. Reseed servers can tell that you bootstrapped from them, but nothing else about your traffic on the I2P network.