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."

Comments

Ironic

[Chairboy]

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

Re:Ironic

[Barto]

Considering irony is "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...

[elykyllek]

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

GNUnet

[Anonymous Coward]

There's still GNUnet!

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

[Reality Master 101]

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

[Neophytus]

Just to bite the Java troll, may I cite the example of Azureus 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 instead).

Some say faster?!

[sulli]

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

mmm really?

[eldacan]

GNUnet is written in C. One buffer overflow exploit could compromise the whole network.

Not quite true IMHO: it's obviously not sufficient to compromise one client/server to compromise the whole network. If it was, it would be a piece of cake to take the existing source code and use it to build this "compromised" client/server.

If you want to compromise the whole network with one buffer overflow exploit, I guess you will have to find an exploit that works with all versions of GNUnet, and you will have to run it against all (ok, most) clients/servers on the network (most of the traffic seen by one computer on the network doesn't make sense for it, it just relays the packets to other computers).

And there is also a Java implementation under development.

Anonymity and Entropy

[trifakir]

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 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, Crowds, Freedom-Net, Tarzan, Onion-Routing, 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.

Tried it, looked suspicious

[vadim_t]

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 ...

[Entropy]

Ack!

What are they doing to me???!

Mute: The Searchable Alternative

[KrisHolland]

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

Entropy Project Closes Up Shop...

[rwbaskette]

...well that was random!