I2P is built on the overlay principle, meaning that an anonymous and secure layer works on top of another network the Internet. One of the main features of I2P is its decentralization. There are no DNS servers in this network, and their place is taken by automatically updated "address books". And the role of addresses is played by cryptographic keys that do not give out real computers in any way. Each project user can get their own key, which cannot be tracked.
Many users often wonder why use I2P when there is a VPN and Tor. If we compare I2P with the Tor browser, we can distinguish the following differences:
Hacker has already written more about the principles of I2P operation in the article "Revealing the secrets of the I2P network", so we will not dwell on the technical implementation and will embark on the promised journey as soon as possible. But first, collect your gear.
This isn't Tor for you
Tor and I2P have one similarity: you can't access their resources without additional software. But if everything is simple for Tor - download the browser and enjoy it, then it is more difficult for ordinary users to deal with I2P. Here's what we'll need.
Proxy settings
If the I2P console page doesn't open, open it yourself: http://127.0.0.1:7657/home.
Great! Everything is ready to explore the expanses of I2P. Then you can add automatic loading of personal libraries with links to resources in I2P. This will make navigation easier.
And one more optional step. You can go to the section "Traffic" and then change the share of transit traffic to 100% and increase the number of kilobytes for return and reception per second to the maximum as in the screenshot. Practice shows that this reduces the network response time.
That's all, come on in, take off your shoes and make yourself at home! Just don't take off your gloves, leaving footprints here is strictly forbidden.
What is available in I2P
The I2P world is not as rich as the onion expanses of Tor. But still, with proper search, you can find a lot of useful, intimidating and simply interesting things in it.
Blogs, boards, and forums
The first place to visit is the Hidden Answers forum. Onion lovers will find This place familiar, even a little native. On the forum, people ask questions of various kinds from "what is Your favorite youtuber?" to " How to get an abortion?". The same ordinary users respond. Of course, their answers are not always good or even relevant, but there are a lot of interesting things there. Hidden Answers has a Russian-language equivalent called SecretChat.
In I2P, people really like to start their own blogs, where they share a variety of information and considerations. As a rule, they write about things that clearnet is afraid to talk about.
There are also some things that are not entirely clear: for example, on the rebel.i2p site, random meaningless images replace each other. There are also sites for adults, but you will not find anything new on them especially if you are really an adult.
Just in case you didn't buy garlands for the New year
As an example of a useful blog, you can cite the page of user Michael van Delft called Exotic Security. There, Michael shares the secrets of truly exotic network security and discusses useful features for programmers. For example, the author of the blog talks about the possibilities of flashing MacBooks and other interesting things.
What u know bout securtiy, bro?!
Any underground network simply has to have its own Board, where people can communicate on any topic. I2P does not change these traditions and presents us with a place called F*ck Society. There are subsections on various topics, including one of them-the Runion representative office. There are threads about banned substances, violence, politics, and other topics that are mandatory for the darknet.
Continuing to look at anonymous social networks, we come across Onelon. This is a kind of "Facebook" without restrictions: you can write anything, to anyone and for any reason. Fans of the onion space have known Onelon for at least several years. The I2P version is almost no different: similar threads, similar comments. However, the onion version is much more popular.
Communication
Of the useful services that are available in I2P, it is worth highlighting vPass, which helps you come up with a password for a specific domain, and EasyGPG, which makes you a private gpg key. In fact, almost all practical I2P resources can be easily found in. onion and even on the clearnet.
For example, Jabber servers like Echelon and anonymous decentralized mailers like I2P bot will surprise only newbies in our time. But it is useful to know about their existence.
Trade
And of course, I2P has its own markets. Where in Onion Hydra, here is nvspc The system of payment and receipt of goods is similar, and both of them can be accessed from the clearnet. Note that nvspc can also act as a cryptocurrency exchange. Also worth mentioning is Garden but this is not a garden of Eden at all, but a marketplace similar To wayaway in .onion.
In terms of art, I2P also has something, for example, the StreamRadio streaming platform and "Radio Anonymus". But who needs anonymized music is a non-trivial question.
Catalogs
I2P has its own "Russian I2P Wiki". The purpose of this wiki is to promote the development of the I2P project, allowing users to anonymously make edits to existing articles that are somewhat reminiscent of the popular "Lurk". Among other things, there is a page with links to interesting resources.
Don't forget about Eepsites, a directory of links. Directories in I2P could be a useful resource, but unfortunately, most of the links are broken.
Russian-language I2P Wiki
Book collapses
Flibusta is also hosted in I2P and is working successfully. However, in addition to the usual libraries with millions of books, I2P also offers more narrow-profile ones. For example, resource owners "Extreme chemistry" collects guides, experiments from which you can (but don't need to!) repeat at home or in the garage. As an educational and entertaining reading material it is quite interesting. "World of fantasy" is also something like a narrowly focused library: if you like to dive into magical worlds, then I2P will please you twice as much here.
File sharing
I2P has a huge number of file sharing sites. Really, where can you share files as securely and anonymously as here? Probably only in real life and even that is not a fact. In I2P, there is also a well-known one "Buried" and a lot of underground places like Serien. They are also exchanged via torrents take the rutor mirror or the Public Torrent Tracker. There is even a mirror "Orthodox torrent".
Crime scene
If the clearnet and. onion are full of hacker and card forums, scammers and scammers, then in I2P everything is modest in this regard. Even the largest onion-related criminal resources often do not want to go into I2P, preferring to keep easier access paths for users. In I2P, criminal resources are created for very hardcore comrades, and it is not easy to find such places.
For example, the Armada resource provides services for DDoS attacks, hacking, and the like. However, the authors themselves claim that all this is a bluff, fiction and a joke we did not check it.
From other hacker resources, you can't tell if the geniuses of disguise or some random people who are not related to hacking live there. For example, Project Mayhem seems to provide some services, but it looks more like a Mayan calendar. The French hacker forum BumpTeam is very similar to the practical work of a first-year student. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any other criminal resources in I2P.
Give me back my 2012
Cryptocurrency
I2p has a much better relationship with bitcoin and crypto in General than with other things. For example, Zcash is available in I2P, and there are also many other wallets and exchangers with trading platforms. We have not used any of them, and therefore we strongly recommend that you think a hundred times before making cryptocurrency transactions in I2P.
By the way, there is even a website that allows you to withdraw bitcoins to a virtual VISA card. It's currently unavailable, but the idea is interesting.
Other things
There are a lot of resources in I2P that can also be accessed from the clearnet. For example, the list of proxies for Telegram or Rospravosudie.
I would like to finish the list of the most interesting and accessible I2P resources on the official website of the I2P Project.
And we're back to where we started.
Conclusions
Using I2P is not easy, and, as a result, this network is not very popular in comparison with Tor services. I2P provides a more sophisticated anonymization mechanism, but it does not boast a wealth of content.
It turns out that I2P is not yet for looking at sites, but for anonymous data transfer and hiding traffic from prying eyes. In this regard, if it is not perfect, it is at least better than Tor or VPN.
The existence of an uncontrolled and decentralized network is important, even if there is nothing valuable for you personally. So let's say thank you to those who continue to support I2P, and we'll look here again in a couple of years.
Many users often wonder why use I2P when there is a VPN and Tor. If we compare I2P with the Tor browser, we can distinguish the following differences:
- Tor uses onion routing, sending your traffic through the famous eight proxies, but it doesn't protect you from decryption by itself. I2P, on the contrary, relies on traffic encryption.
- Tor is a big socks fan, while I2P prefers to use its own API. What's more convenient is up to you.
- I2P tunnels are unidirectional, unlike Tor.
- Tor, although it has the properties of a peer-to-peer network, is centralized. I2P is completely decentralized.
Hacker has already written more about the principles of I2P operation in the article "Revealing the secrets of the I2P network", so we will not dwell on the technical implementation and will embark on the promised journey as soon as possible. But first, collect your gear.
This isn't Tor for you
Tor and I2P have one similarity: you can't access their resources without additional software. But if everything is simple for Tor - download the browser and enjoy it, then it is more difficult for ordinary users to deal with I2P. Here's what we'll need.
- Java. Download and install the Windows version here.
- Official installer from the I2P site. Choose the one that suits your system and install it. In the list, by the way, there is even Android.
- If you have Windows, open "start → All programs → I2P" and choose "Start I2P (no window)". If it's Linux, then you probably know what to do.
- The next step is to open a browser, such as Firefox. In it — "Settings → Advanced → Network → Use proxy". Fill in the fields in the same way as in the screenshot.
Proxy settings
If the I2P console page doesn't open, open it yourself: http://127.0.0.1:7657/home.
Great! Everything is ready to explore the expanses of I2P. Then you can add automatic loading of personal libraries with links to resources in I2P. This will make navigation easier.
And one more optional step. You can go to the section "Traffic" and then change the share of transit traffic to 100% and increase the number of kilobytes for return and reception per second to the maximum as in the screenshot. Practice shows that this reduces the network response time.
That's all, come on in, take off your shoes and make yourself at home! Just don't take off your gloves, leaving footprints here is strictly forbidden.
What is available in I2P
The I2P world is not as rich as the onion expanses of Tor. But still, with proper search, you can find a lot of useful, intimidating and simply interesting things in it.
Blogs, boards, and forums
The first place to visit is the Hidden Answers forum. Onion lovers will find This place familiar, even a little native. On the forum, people ask questions of various kinds from "what is Your favorite youtuber?" to " How to get an abortion?". The same ordinary users respond. Of course, their answers are not always good or even relevant, but there are a lot of interesting things there. Hidden Answers has a Russian-language equivalent called SecretChat.
In I2P, people really like to start their own blogs, where they share a variety of information and considerations. As a rule, they write about things that clearnet is afraid to talk about.
There are also some things that are not entirely clear: for example, on the rebel.i2p site, random meaningless images replace each other. There are also sites for adults, but you will not find anything new on them especially if you are really an adult.
Just in case you didn't buy garlands for the New year
As an example of a useful blog, you can cite the page of user Michael van Delft called Exotic Security. There, Michael shares the secrets of truly exotic network security and discusses useful features for programmers. For example, the author of the blog talks about the possibilities of flashing MacBooks and other interesting things.
What u know bout securtiy, bro?!
Any underground network simply has to have its own Board, where people can communicate on any topic. I2P does not change these traditions and presents us with a place called F*ck Society. There are subsections on various topics, including one of them-the Runion representative office. There are threads about banned substances, violence, politics, and other topics that are mandatory for the darknet.
Continuing to look at anonymous social networks, we come across Onelon. This is a kind of "Facebook" without restrictions: you can write anything, to anyone and for any reason. Fans of the onion space have known Onelon for at least several years. The I2P version is almost no different: similar threads, similar comments. However, the onion version is much more popular.
Communication
Of the useful services that are available in I2P, it is worth highlighting vPass, which helps you come up with a password for a specific domain, and EasyGPG, which makes you a private gpg key. In fact, almost all practical I2P resources can be easily found in. onion and even on the clearnet.
For example, Jabber servers like Echelon and anonymous decentralized mailers like I2P bot will surprise only newbies in our time. But it is useful to know about their existence.
Trade
And of course, I2P has its own markets. Where in Onion Hydra, here is nvspc The system of payment and receipt of goods is similar, and both of them can be accessed from the clearnet. Note that nvspc can also act as a cryptocurrency exchange. Also worth mentioning is Garden but this is not a garden of Eden at all, but a marketplace similar To wayaway in .onion.
In terms of art, I2P also has something, for example, the StreamRadio streaming platform and "Radio Anonymus". But who needs anonymized music is a non-trivial question.
Catalogs
I2P has its own "Russian I2P Wiki". The purpose of this wiki is to promote the development of the I2P project, allowing users to anonymously make edits to existing articles that are somewhat reminiscent of the popular "Lurk". Among other things, there is a page with links to interesting resources.
Don't forget about Eepsites, a directory of links. Directories in I2P could be a useful resource, but unfortunately, most of the links are broken.
Russian-language I2P Wiki
Book collapses
Flibusta is also hosted in I2P and is working successfully. However, in addition to the usual libraries with millions of books, I2P also offers more narrow-profile ones. For example, resource owners "Extreme chemistry" collects guides, experiments from which you can (but don't need to!) repeat at home or in the garage. As an educational and entertaining reading material it is quite interesting. "World of fantasy" is also something like a narrowly focused library: if you like to dive into magical worlds, then I2P will please you twice as much here.
File sharing
I2P has a huge number of file sharing sites. Really, where can you share files as securely and anonymously as here? Probably only in real life and even that is not a fact. In I2P, there is also a well-known one "Buried" and a lot of underground places like Serien. They are also exchanged via torrents take the rutor mirror or the Public Torrent Tracker. There is even a mirror "Orthodox torrent".
Crime scene
If the clearnet and. onion are full of hacker and card forums, scammers and scammers, then in I2P everything is modest in this regard. Even the largest onion-related criminal resources often do not want to go into I2P, preferring to keep easier access paths for users. In I2P, criminal resources are created for very hardcore comrades, and it is not easy to find such places.
For example, the Armada resource provides services for DDoS attacks, hacking, and the like. However, the authors themselves claim that all this is a bluff, fiction and a joke we did not check it.
From other hacker resources, you can't tell if the geniuses of disguise or some random people who are not related to hacking live there. For example, Project Mayhem seems to provide some services, but it looks more like a Mayan calendar. The French hacker forum BumpTeam is very similar to the practical work of a first-year student. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any other criminal resources in I2P.
Give me back my 2012
Cryptocurrency
I2p has a much better relationship with bitcoin and crypto in General than with other things. For example, Zcash is available in I2P, and there are also many other wallets and exchangers with trading platforms. We have not used any of them, and therefore we strongly recommend that you think a hundred times before making cryptocurrency transactions in I2P.
By the way, there is even a website that allows you to withdraw bitcoins to a virtual VISA card. It's currently unavailable, but the idea is interesting.
Other things
There are a lot of resources in I2P that can also be accessed from the clearnet. For example, the list of proxies for Telegram or Rospravosudie.
I would like to finish the list of the most interesting and accessible I2P resources on the official website of the I2P Project.
And we're back to where we started.
Conclusions
Using I2P is not easy, and, as a result, this network is not very popular in comparison with Tor services. I2P provides a more sophisticated anonymization mechanism, but it does not boast a wealth of content.
It turns out that I2P is not yet for looking at sites, but for anonymous data transfer and hiding traffic from prying eyes. In this regard, if it is not perfect, it is at least better than Tor or VPN.
The existence of an uncontrolled and decentralized network is important, even if there is nothing valuable for you personally. So let's say thank you to those who continue to support I2P, and we'll look here again in a couple of years.
