Entropy Project Closes Up Shop

k0fcc writes "In a disappointing move to privacy enthusiasts, the Entropy Project's creator has released a statement that the project is shutting down. Entropy was a very popular, and some say faster, alternative to Freenet which supported a number of different cryptographic protocols. The creator alluded to the possibility that the project could continue if a new owner could be found."

Ironic

Does anyone else find it ironic that a project named 'Entropy' has come apart?

Re:Ironic

Considering irony is [princeton.edu] "incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs", ironic would be a project named Entropy staying together. A project named Entropy coming apart perfectly congruous IMHO. So there.

that was fun...

Considering I just got this installed, configured and working 5 minutes ago.. this is great news...

GNUnet

There's still GNUnet [ovmj.org]!

GNUnet is a framework for secure peer-to-peer networking that does not use any centralized or otherwise trusted services. A first service implemented on top of the networking layer allows anonymous censorship-resistant file-sharing. GNUnet uses a simple, excess-based economic model to allocate resources. Peers in GNUnet monitor each others behavior with respect to resource usage; peers that contribute to the network are rewarded with better service.

Erm

I don't mean to be snarky, but "very" popular? Does Freenet itself qualify as "popular", much less "very popular"? Does /anyone/ semi-normal (i.e., not a techno-geek, or a rights-geek) use Freenet, and if they do, has anything significant ever been published on it?

Freenet seems to me to be one of those ivory tower projects that has little relation to the real world. Proof? No search engine, and very little chance of ever having one. How the hell can it ever be useful? [/rm101 resists making a dig about their choice to implement in Java]

Re:Erm

Just to bite the Java troll, may I cite the example of Azureus [sourceforge.net] as an example of a Java program done right(tm). Runs fast, is responsive and doesn't use the godawful swing toolkit (it uses SWT [eclipse.org] instead).

Some say faster?!

My 11 year old VW Jetta is faster than Freenet. In 5 pm Bay Bridge traffic.

Yeah, entropy ain't what it used to be.

Now it's official.

Anonymity and Entropy

Yep, anonymity is a favourite topic of conversation of me and my colleagues. Frankly, I do not understand the concerns of the "Entropy" project leader. Here is why:

1. Theoretically, it is impossible to have anonymous communication [cornell.edu] on the Internet.
2. In practice it is a balance of resources. The trick is that it is much cheaper to publish contents anonymously, than to trace the origin of an information. Therefore projects like Hacktivismo - Six/Four [hacktivismo.com], Crowds [avirubin.com], Freedom-Net [freedom.net], Tarzan [mit.edu], Onion-Routing [onion-router.net], etc. make sense.

Furthermore, it is often the content which speaks more about the authorship, than the chain of technical events that leads to the publishing of the information. In Slashdot, for example, I have chosen not to show my e-mail, etc., but by reading my comments even a 10-years old kid can make a deduction about my real identity. Does it make sense for me to use IP-tunneling then?

Finally, I do not understand the author. He just seems pissed. Maybe he will reconsider his opinion and revive the project. Is he sick from the lies (?) about the crypto-protocols used in the software which is written? IMHO the theory proves quite stable and if there is a room for attacks it is more in the implementations than in the protocols themselves. How many broken cryptosystems do you recollect (I know, I know "the knapsack", but it got broken on the conference on which it was presented).

Still, even with this project retreating, the subject remains interesting.

Check out my own project.

Pros: IPv4/IPv6 based network, static IP addresses, free domain names, all traditional TCP apps work, easier to understand.

Cons: Still small, restrictions on who you can invite, win95/98 not supported very well, some dullards have trouble understanding how anonymity works (if it uses TCP/IP your address can be tracked!).

In particular, I need to find people that favor linux/unix (even OSX would be fine), would be willing to invite others, and plan on residing in any country other than the USA for the next few years. Bandwidth usage is negligible, and I'm willing to prove it.

I'd also be willing to mentor those interested in setting up their own similar network, the more the merrier.

Tried it, looked suspicious

Okay, first impression was:

"Wow, great project!". It was like Freenet, only faster, lower latency, some stuff was cooler. It looked really promising. It was much easier to install in a chroot jail than Freenet.

However. From what I saw, I wouldn't trust it for any serious purpose. It looked like the author was only interested in using it for testing his own crypto algorithms, and as anybody who read on this stuff should know, rolling your own crypto is a really bad idea unless you're really, really good, and then make sure it gets well tested for a few years.

It had a nice possibility of restricting the node to chosen allowed crypto algorithms, but none of the available ones was in widespread use. I mean, AES, DES and Blowfish weren't in the list last time I checked. That makes me rather suspicious.

I voiced my concerns once in the Entropy forum, and the author replied saying this is basically a research project and not intended for serious use (IIRC).

If somebody does decide to continue with it, I certainly hope that one of the first things that will be done is to put some tested crypto in it instead of a bunch of homebrew methods. Nothing personal against the author, but I believe that if it was easier to trust it, it could become more popular.

Oh no ...

Ack!

What are they doing to me???!

CVS Repository itself..

Is there any way to copy out the full contents of the CVS repository itself into another archive? The full development (and not just the latest version of it) is valuable to programmers who wish to learn more about the development process itself that went into Entropy.

Privacy enthusiasts?

Is it a sign of the times or the miseducation among us o rour own stupidity that someone has come up with such a term? I mean one who values ones privacy is termed an enthusiast thus denoting that one is almost but not quite on the fringe of society when it comes to privacy issues. More like a gun enthusiast

Mute: The Searchable Alternative

There is one alternative called Mute [sourceforge.net], which solves one key problem with Freenet or Entropy which is that it is searchable.

This discussions is about Entropy?

The author of Entropy has ceased development, because he heard somewhere [slashdot.org], that apparently [slashdot.org] someone [slashdot.org], not exactly sure who, had solved [slashdot.org] the problem [slashdot.org].

Jeez, dood [slashdot.org], this article was about Entropy... ;)

Overview of anonymous filesharing networks

If you are looking for alternatives or an overview of the most important anonymous filesharing networks you should check out http://board.planetpeer.de Although it is living on a .de domain there are also english forums available.

Irony

" The creator alluded to the possibility that the project could continue if a new owner could be found."

Ah the irony....

Entropy Project Closes Up Shop...

...well that was random!