The Tor network carry the communications of hundreads of thousands people each day. By relaying data through multiple servers and layers of cryptography, these exchanges become anonymous and hard to censor.
For many years, relays are growing in numbers and capacity. Surfing the web using Tor on a daily basis is no longer reserved for the most patient among us.
The count of “big” relays remain however pretty small. At the dawn of 2013, half of the connexions exit the Tor network through thirtyish computers. To make the network harder to monitor, we really need more than that.
During the opening lecture of the 29th Chaos Communication Congress, Jacob Appelbaum did a survey on the audience: “Raise your hand if you think anonymity is good and that you think it is a fundamental right we should all have?” He followed by asking to “raise your hand if you want to do something about it?” And to conclude: “Now keep your hand up if you run a Tor relay. Everybody that put your hand down, why are you not running a Tor relay?”
Here is why we are setting up the organization “Nos oignons”! We want to enable more people to contribute to the Tor network. We want to gather donations and good will to run relays with lots of bandwidth and the needed processing power.
We want to host these relays in France to enhance the geographic diversity of the network — better diversity, better anonymity — and work on the legal front.
Aside from the name and a lot of preliminary research, everything remains to be done: finish and submit the organization statutes, open a bank account, setup accounting, create a web site, install a mail system, configure Tor relays, collect donations…
The list is not complete, and a large diversity of abilities are welcomed. This is not a project which needs experts on crypto, arc welding or political speechs… We are just looking for people ready to commit to the ride.
It is possible to contribute under a pseudonym, but we are also looking for people that would want to be on the administrative board. Let's be upfront about it: it does not go without risks1. This is why we are working with a lawyer from the beginning!
Join us to take care of “Nos oignons”! :) Contact us by email: contact
(at) nos-oignons.net or on IRC: #nos-oignons on
irc.oftc.net
1 One relay operater was recently summoned by the police (in french)…