This is standalone version of the Tor Project's "Snowflake" proxy, which can be used to produce an I2P Plugin that will donate a Snowflake to Tor Browser Users. The Snowflake uses I2P to manage it's life-cycle. That means when you start and stop your I2P router, you start and stop the snowflake.
Blizzard is Privacy Mutual Aid
We are developing a generation of privacy-aware applications motivated by mutual aid, meant to increase the strengths of other applications in the Privacy and Peer-to-Peer ecosystem.
We learned about instances of attacking Snowflake users by identifying Snowflakes and cutting the users off. This is similar to blocking attempts to I2P where I2P nodes are enumerated and then users are disconnected from those nodes.However, due to I2P's high churn rate, this blocking technique does not appear to have any practical effect on an I2P user's ability to join the network or access information. Blizzard uses I2P's peer diversity, network churn, and obfuscated transport to allow access to Tor in blocked areas and still retain Tor's security properties, and in particular their Exit Diversity. By using a bridge rather than an outproxy as a path to Tor, and accessing that bridge over I2P, we provide greater resistance too blocking.
If you can safely use I2P in non-hidden mode, you're probably able to safely donate a Snowflake long-term.
What Does Hidden Mode Mean for the I2P Network?
When an I2P router is placed in hidden mode, its connection and interaction with the network change in three ways:
It will no longer publish a routerInfo to the NetDB.
It will no longer accept participating tunnels.
It will reject direct connections to routers in the same country that it is in.
These defences make these routers more difficult to enumerate reliably, and prevent them from potentially being in violation of restrictions on routing traffic for others.
The Invisible Internet Project ( I2P Java) takes direction from civil and digital rights organizations in order to make decisions that offer protections for its users. In this case, the ongoing research provided by Freedom House has been referenced. General guidance is to include countries with a Civil Liberties (CL) score of 16 or less or an Internet Freedom score of 39 or less (not free) on a Strict Countries List and automatically be placed into "Hidden" mode.
Blizzard: The I2P Snowflake donor Plugin
This is standalone version of the Tor Project's "Snowflake" proxy, which can be used to produce an I2P Plugin that will donate a Snowflake to Tor Browser Users. The Snowflake uses I2P to manage it's life-cycle. That means when you start and stop your I2P router, you start and stop the snowflake.
Blizzard is Privacy Mutual Aid
We are developing a generation of privacy-aware applications motivated by mutual aid, meant to increase the strengths of other applications in the Privacy and Peer-to-Peer ecosystem.
We learned about instances of attacking Snowflake users by identifying Snowflakes and cutting the users off. This is similar to blocking attempts to I2P where I2P nodes are enumerated and then users are disconnected from those nodes.However, due to I2P's high churn rate, this blocking technique does not appear to have any practical effect on an I2P user's ability to join the network or access information. Blizzard uses I2P's peer diversity, network churn, and obfuscated transport to allow access to Tor in blocked areas and still retain Tor's security properties, and in particular their Exit Diversity. By using a bridge rather than an outproxy as a path to Tor, and accessing that bridge over I2P, we provide greater resistance too blocking.
If you can safely use I2P in non-hidden mode, you're probably able to safely donate a Snowflake long-term.
What Does Hidden Mode Mean for the I2P Network?
When an I2P router is placed in hidden mode, its connection and interaction with the network change in three ways:
It will no longer publish a routerInfo to the NetDB. It will no longer accept participating tunnels. It will reject direct connections to routers in the same country that it is in. These defences make these routers more difficult to enumerate reliably, and prevent them from potentially being in violation of restrictions on routing traffic for others.
The Invisible Internet Project ( I2P Java) takes direction from civil and digital rights organizations in order to make decisions that offer protections for its users. In this case, the ongoing research provided by Freedom House has been referenced. General guidance is to include countries with a Civil Liberties (CL) score of 16 or less or an Internet Freedom score of 39 or less (not free) on a Strict Countries List and automatically be placed into "Hidden" mode.
To see the countries currently included in this list visit: https://geti2p.net/en/about/restrictive-countries
Create a Blizzard
Blizzard For Windows (I2P network link) Blizzard For Linux (I2P Network Link)
Blizzard For Windows Blizzard For Linux
About Tor Project's Snowflake
Homepage: https://snowflake.torproject.org/ Firefox Extension Chrome Extension Use the Snowflake Go library to add a proxy to your application