Why are Low-Latency “solutions” preferred over High-latency alternatives?
In my opinion the torproject destroyed "anonymity/pseudonymity " a quarter of a century ago when “they” prioritized low-latency (over user defined latency)
No denying user defined latency and TLA engagement in Mixmaster remailers was highly problematic, but it seems equally disturbing what the TP has done since then.
Am I the only one who has seen this stupidity? Besides horribly coded I2p , or crap like Hyphanet/ Freenet, or dumb-ass VPNs. Are we really stuck with things like proxychains and ssh “chains” to attempt to achieve some semblance of privacy? Am I missing something obvious?
Clearly quantum computing will / has broken open most (if not all) present day encryption but is it time to give up on “solutions” like tor and whonix?
As much as I appreciate all that @Patrick has done with Whonix I have to wonder If privacy is actauly posiible in 2024. Please, please explain to me how I am wrong!
The existence of Tor never directly stopped anyone from developing asynchronous high-latency anonymity tools.
However if we consider it philosophically the amount of resources that could be spent on a project could be considered a finite currency. It could be argued that Tor has the most interest thus ‘bankrupting’ other projects taking other approaches.
I was under the impression that remailers died out due to spam and related issues. Is this understanding not correct?
Still I am compelled to challenge @extraextra 's response
Short (and simple) answer: The torproject did not. AFAIK they do good work and should be praised for what they do.
Longer and more thoughtful answer:
I would only add that “projects taking other approaches” e.g. high-latency alternatives face numerous challenges such as small numbers of users and subsequently lowered pseudoanonymity and likely greater fingerprintability.
So my original question still remains “Why are Low-Latency “solutions” preferred over High-latency alternatives?” at least philosophically.
…
In response to
I honestly don’t know. I thought remailers died due to user base shrinkage, perceptions true or not that most / many were run by intel agencies, and Debian not including “updated” versions of mixmaster (like Steve Crook’s versions), and the losses of developer and project leader Len Sassaman aka rabbi in 2011 and Ulf Möller in 2012. But in truth your guess is as good as mine @h3xagonal