A darknet is a private network closed to the general public that only accepts new members issuing a personal invitation, while darknets make infiltration difficult as members can be asked to contribute something before joining in order to prove that they are willing participants, it is possible that a darknet member computer is lost or stolen and someone else assumes his personality, aka identity theft, endangering the whole darknet, thus why using a darknet on a tor proxy is recommended, if nobody knows anyone else there is no way for members to track down other people through their IP address, when someone’s identity is stolen the opponent can only hope to lure members in the open to a medium where they can be traced, like for example giving them a link to a website that logs visitors IP.
The problem of running P2P software over tor is that it is very slow and tor has not been designed for that, it deprives people of much needed bandwidth to access banned websites, but as long as the files are small or the darknet is used only to chat with big file transfers taking place off the darknet then it can work.
WASTE, secure P2P filesharing
WASTE is a chat and anonymous P2P filesharing tool with instant messenger, group chat, file searching and file transfer (upload/download), public RSA encryption key is used to establish the connection and Blowfish encryption for file transfers, WASTE has been designed as a secure P2P tool to be used by a small group of people concerned about privacy and anonymity, there is no central node in WASTE, if a node goes down the network will still be up as it works in mesh mode, random traffic to make traffic analysis harder can be added using a feature called “Saturate”.
BlackBeltPrivacy WASTE P2P darknet
To join a decentralized P2P WASTE darknet you will need to know the password first, if you are just starting in WASTE you can join one of the public channels known as Nullnet, you only need to post your keys to WASTE Key exchange. One shortcoming of this private file exchange network is that when someone has joined there is no way to kick them out as there is no central authority, all that can be done is to create a new channel where that user is not invited.
BlackBeltPrivacy pseudoanonymous P2P
BlackBeltPrivacy is a pseudoanonymous P2P software bundle comprised of WASTE, tor proxy and darkRendezvous (a new pseudo anonymous technology still in beta), all combined in a single package, tor is included for those who want to contribute running a tor server using their own computer, but this does not mean that the darknet runs on tor, it uses a technology called swarmRendezvouz and it is not anonymous.
BlackBeltPrivacy lets you run a tor node
During installation you are offered to act as a tor node, Vidalia and Polippo come with the package, you can choose how much bandwidth you want to commit to the project, the default is 100MB a day, and if you would like to be a tor relay or a tor exit node, running a tor node is not compulsory in order to run BlackBeltPrivacy.
Like in all P2P software your computer will be acting as a server at times, this means that your firewall will give you dozens of warnings on incoming connections, you should configure it to allow BlackBeltPrivacy to share files, the developers have decided not to allow 100% anonymity to prevent what they call “criminal and abusive” behaviour, I only realised that this software is not truly anonymous after installing and running it, I am highly disappointed about the deliberate anonymity strip down carried out by the developers, by not allowing the ultraDark mode to run.
Visit BlackBeltPrivacy homepage
Update: The developers claim you are truly anonymous, a new darkBIOS() version has been released, see the comments section for more info.
We hope we can allay your fears.
We hope we have been diplomatic and sensitive to your needs.
As part of our ongoing commitment to you and to allay any other fears with our technology stack, we will be using PeerGuardian to protect our darkRendezvous() nodes.
If you have any feedback on this – please let us know.
Kind regards,
CallSign: Spiderman.
The darkBIOS nodes are all PeerGuardian protected now.
This is to add to your security and that of the wider network.
We are listening to you and doing our best.
Thank you.
Caitlin I like your site so far but your comment about piracy is being crime did disappoint me. what is criminal or not depends on country, what is illegal in UK dont have to be illegal in china or Russia or Switzerland. And to even remotely trying to put “pirates” on same level as pedophiles, well that doesn’t need commentary…
Your logic is somehow flawed in one aspect, because when something is deemed illegal by our system today it doesn’t mean its right or moral. I would suppose its illegal to demonstrate against
government in Syria (or North Korea etc) but it doesn’t mean that doing so is wrong.
I highly recommend for you to read Falkvinge Lawfully good lawfully evil article
Where has DarkBIOS gone? Its Sourceforge folder is empty.
How can I contact the developer?
Thanks.
I have spoken to some people on the network. This is what I gleaned.
BlackBelt Privacy – Tor + WASTE
BlackBelt darkNet – WASTE only – and the client most people should use.
BlackBelt darkBIOS – was removed since its really intended for people who wish to serve their own darknet.
The main difference between the WASTE client and WASTE darkBIOS is that the bios is just that – basic input output system. It primarily exists to allow clients to connect to the network and so allows many more connections that the client. The network hangs together with a default key, held by the BIOS node. This is known to be less secure – but it means all persons can connect. You are then free to generate a new private key specific to you to get full security on the network. The guy I spoke to said that he and others encourage people to make use of the WASTE network password facility to then generate your own darknets, which are network-password protected. The one you connect to is a nullnet, which in WASTE parlance is a meeting place for users. So darkClient is what you need to make use of the nullnet and to create your own smaller darknet. darkBIOS is designed to allow many many people to have a central meeting place.
The download page for BlackBelt Privacy is :
http://sourceforge.net/projects/blackbeltpriv/
For BlackBelt darkNet (the client only connecting to darkBIOS server) :
http://sourceforge.net/projects/swarmdarknet/
I hope that clears it up 🙂
Thank you for the update and the explanation ciphersource.
hacker10
BlackBeltPrivacy +Tor +Waste is now hosted at MajorGeeks.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/BlackBeltPrivacy_TorWASTE_d7658.html
The developers have obviously taken views here on board.
When you install now your default display name is set to anon::
You are then free to change it to what you want.
The ‘real id’ is also set to darkEntity and a version number.
They do not push WASTE traffic over Tor because they have promised the Tor team not to break or harm their network. WASTE is a p2p tool and privacy tool. There is not much point in pushing traffic over Tor. Well – unless you want to annoy the Tor developers and suffer catastrophic performance degradation.
This is still in beta, but rumour has it that its nearing a point release. It seems stable for everyday use right now 🙂
They are listening to you Hacker10….
We have now included MicroSIP for true p2p voice calling to any IP:Port address.
WASTE has also been revamped, increasing anonymity in its views. WASTE now completely disconnects the IP address of connected users from the content they may wish to share.
Please feedback to us with any issues, using this forum or the BIOS node on the WASTE darknet network.
grub @ BlackBelt Privacy Team.
Hello,
Thank you for the update, the project is looking great. Best of luck.
hacker10