The goal is for wallets and nodes to avoid leaks when using applications.
According to Buterin, Ethereum will incorporate these types of services “in all layers where possible.”
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) will integrate anonymity tools used by the Tor network in different layers of the ecosystem, according to what was detailed by Vitalik Buterin during a presentation at the Devconnect Argentina event.
Tor is a network designed to hide a user’s IP address through the technique “onion routing”. It is a system that encrypts and sends data through multiple nodes (or layers, like an onion, hence «onion«) to prevent anyone from identifying the origin of the traffic.
Among its functions are the «onion hidden services» or hidden onion services, which allow an application or server is accessible without revealing its actual location.
According to Buterin, Ethereum will incorporate these types of services “in all layers where possible.”
The goal is for wallets, nodes and applications to communicate anonymously, without exposing the user’s IP address nor their usage patterns.
Also, Vitalik explained that this initiative responds to a conceptual change within the Ethereum Foundation:
We moved from thinking about privacy only within the chain to a broader view, which also protects how users read data or interact with a node.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum.
This implies that privacy will not depend solely on zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), a technology that aims for more privacy and more scalability. Optimal levels of privacy will also fall on the protection of external connections to operate on the networkaccording to the Russian-Canadian.
For example, in Ethereum, decentralized wallets and applications (dapps) they consult nodes known as RPC (nodes that answer questions about the chain and accept transactions).
If a node RPC sees all of a user’s queries, can reconstruct that access history and link usage patterns to their IP. By incorporating hidden services and routing onionEthereum seeks to prevent an RPC node can relate queries to a specific user.
Vitalik Buterin intends to add security layers to Ethereum
On the other hand, Buterin, at the conference on November 21, also highlighted that protection should extend to sending transactions:
If someone is watching the network, they can see your transactions as soon as they leave your device. That’s why we’re looking at that layer and raising the bar for privacy across the network.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum.
Without a private transport layer, any attacker could link an IP address to a transaction.
Thus, the integration of technologies based on Tor seeks to prevent that associationadding anonymity from the network level to the final applications.
The following graphic shows how the Tor routing technique works «onion» in layers of nodes, which would be integrated by Ethereum:
With such routing, privacy is guaranteed by directing traffic through entry, intermediate and exit nodesencrypting the data in multiple layers and hiding the user’s identity.
However, they did not specify when these technologies could be implemented on Ethereum.
What Tor technologies will Ethereum incorporate?
According to one publication On November 25 from the team behind Web3 Privacy Now, a research project that led the technical sessions on privacy during Devconnect, the EF is working to introduce several Tor components to the network:
- Secret selection of block proponents:
It is planned to use a system called Single Secret Leader Election (SSLE). This technique chooses the validator who will propose the next block without others knowing.
Only the proposer himself knows his role until the exact moment of publishing the block.
This reduces risks such as attacks targeting a specific validator. It would also prevent an observer from identifying patterns linked to the proposer’s activity.
- Mixnets (Mixing networks):
In addition to methods similar to “onion routing”Ethereum will include mixnets, systems that mix messages to prevent tracking.
Both mechanisms prevent a third party from being able to associate a transaction with a specific user when they leave their device.
- Pluggable transports (Connectable transports):
The “pluggable transports” They are modules that make Tor traffic look like a protocol that no censor would want to block. One of them, Snowflake, converts traffic so that looks like video call traffic.
The idea is that wallets and network reading tools support these transports and achieve censorship-resistant connections.
Impact for users and applications
According to Web3 Privacy Now, both queries to the chain and the sending of transactions would be protected. This would close one of the most vulnerable points of Ethereum– The traffic between the user and the RPC node.
Finally, from Web3 Privacy Now, they indicated that, with the Kohaku project, reported by CriptoNoticias, they are already working on software packages that will perform these functions “plug and play” (ready to use) for wallets and applications.
Given that, as they warn, the EF seeks to make adoption simple, this organization is evaluating executing relays (Tor intermediate nodes) to compensate for the additional load that its adoption will generate.