Although you may have already heard of the “dark web” and possibly used the Tor (The Onion Router) browser before (apbweb.com/2023/04/peeling-the-onion), for many, I2P (Invisible Internet Project) remains an enigma. As I had previously highlighted in my 2022 American Police Beat article “Your Guide to the Alternative Darknets” (see apbweb.com/2022/07/your-guide-to-the-alternate-dark-nets), I2P remains the second largest dark net by usership for the entirety of the what we colloquially call the dark web. However, since my 2022 APB article, I2P has significantly upgraded, in fact, it is arguably the network’s biggest update in its 22-year existence! In November 2022, I2P developers released I2P 2.0 coinciding with I2P+. More people are using I2P than ever before, with estimated daily users ranging from 35,000 to over 50,000, and that number continues to grow.

I2P, Tor and advent of dark web markets

The Invisible Internet Project was created in 2001 by Lance James, two years after Ian Clarke’s Freenet and six years after Tor. Similar to the dot-com boom when the term “internet” became part of the world’s vernacular, the aforementioned projects would later become what we know today as the dark web. Juxtaposed to Tor’s meteoric rise from a cumbersome Navy project to a proverbial household name, I2P’s usage remained a niche interest for a select learned few. However, similar to Tor, I2P has evolved significantly within the past decade alone. Inasmuch, the “dark net markets” that we traditionally associate with the dark web have played a significant role in that evolution.

By sheer notoriety alone, the original “Silk Road” created the paradigm shift for what we in law enforcement associate as the dark web. A criminal underworld at the tips of your fingers where all things contraband and taboo can be accessible within a few clicks of your mouse, it is no wonder that there were over 13,600 listings on the original Silk Road (see tinyurl.com/7jvr4aw5) before the eventual arrest of Ross Ulbricht in 2013 (see tinyurl.com/43wt2zts). In tandem with the news outlets reporting on the Silk Road, the popularity of Tor skyrocketed. Similar dark net markets jockeyed to fill the void left by the Silk Road downfall, as there were more users of Tor than ever before looking to do their first drug deals on the dark web versus the street corner. In this time frame, I2P usership remained stagnant and miniscule compared to Tor.

With the “war on drugs” now having a new battlefront, dark net markets often share one of two fates: being seized by law enforcement or taking themselves offline. In the four years after the takedown of the Silk Road, law enforcement had successfully taken down multiple dark net markets that were hosted on Tor: Silk Road 2.0, RAMP, Hansa, and, most notably, the original Alphabay. The question began to circulate on Reddit forums, 4Chan, as well as dark net forums such as Dread: Just how safe is Tor?

The Libertas Marketplace and Alphabay

Sometimes, being too forward-thinking and ahead of the curve can be a curse as opposed to a blessing. This type of prophetic tragedy befell the dark net market “Libertas Marketplace.” Besides being one of the first dark net markets that only accepted the anonymity-enhanced coin (AEC) Monero, Libertas Marketplace was one of the first dark net markets to migrate entirely from Tor to I2P, encouraging both marketplaces and consumers to follow suit (see tinyurl.com/3aay4wfr). This decision proved to be the marketplace’s downfall, as Libertas Marketplace shut itself down in a month after the migration due to “lack of use” (see tinyurl.com/3za5haju). Altair is quoted saying, “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” However, I believe that the case of Libertas Marketplace was quite the opposite, as there were multiple reasons for the failure in a time when few lay users of the dark web were using I2P and few were able to easily obtain and transact with Monero.

For almost two years following the Libertas Marketplace death sentence — spawned from their migration to I2P from Tor — a catalyst for change was sparked when the most notorious dark net market administrator, “DeSnake,” emerged after vanishing four years prior when Alphabay was seized in 2017. In an exclusive September 2021 interview with Wired magazine, “DeSnake” was praised in almost a messianic fashion after the return of Alphabay in August 2021 (see tinyurl.com/97kfhmk3). However, this time around, Alphabay was exclusive to I2P, and “DeSnake” explained why everyone needed to become accustomed to I2P. While I had previously stated part of the Libertas Marketplace could be attributed to the sole usage of Monero on the platform, Alphabay only allowed Monero transactions. One would think that the previous failure of Libertas Marketplace should’ve been a forewarning to any market adhering to the same logic … something miraculous happened with Alphabay, and it became one of the longest running and successful dark net markets until going offline in February 2023 (with much speculation about the fate of “DeSnake” and what exactly happened to the marketplace). But Alphabay had blazed the trail, and now I2P was being utilized more than ever before.

I2P versus Tor

There has been a long withstanding debate in the dark web community about I2P being a “true dark net.” To understand this, the Tor browser and Tor network allows the user to traverse the clearnet (the internet you are on right now) outside of the Tor network. Because of this, many view Tor as a giant VPN (virtual private network) versus a true dark net, whereas you cannot traverse outside the network. Such is the case for I2P, where you can only visit “eepsites,” sites that end in the domain “.i2p” and “b32.i2p.” Counterposed to the long alphanumeric addresses that make up “.onion” domains on the Tor network, I2P offers “vanity” domains like “notbob.i2p,” “identiguy.i2p” and “zzz.i2p.” For the Base32 domains, these are more likened to the alphanumeric garble that Tor users are used to: a string of letters and numbers that end in “.b32.i2p” (e.g, cuss2sgthm5wfipnnztrjdvtaczb22hnmr2ohnaqqqz3jf6ubf3a.b32.i2p).

The main difference between I2P and Tor is the way the users’ traffic enters (and, in Tor’s case, exits) the network. For Tor, “onion routing” is the standard, whereas there are entry, middle, and exit nodes (called the “Tor circuit”). With I2P, “tunneling” is how the users’ traffic traverses the network. When utilizing I2P, there is no way to travel outside the network without configuring an out-proxy service. Comparing the vast and expansive Tor network, I2P is dwarfed by the bandwidth Tor offers, which is why the network traffic is much slower. Eepsites take much longer to load, and because of this, sites on I2P are often “dated-looking,” with not much script or graphics. However, unlike Tor, I2P offers a suite of applications to the end user, such as email (I2PMail) and your own domain to host your eepsite.

While I2P will never offer the “download and go” experience of Tor, I feel users will find a much intimate and customizable dark web experience with I2P, especially for those who might have never heard of I2P before reading this article. By default, I2P users must configure to share bandwidth comparable to their internet service provider speed to help sustain the I2P network, as well as ensure their browsing experience to be similar to (but definitely not on par with) Tor.

For those who still may be on the fence about I2P, I highly encourage you to visit I2PHides.me, an I2P in-proxy service allowing you to travel to eepsites from the comfort of the internet you are likely using right now. At a minimum, you’ll see firsthand how sometimes sites won’t load, and experience the joy when they finally do load on the screen for you (something that you can see in real time from a webinar I did with Hunchly in 2022; see youtu.be/w4x0R4yqr8M). You will find no shortage of opinions on Tor versus I2P, but the important thing to understand is that more people are now using I2P than ever before. With the advent of “I2P Purple Routing,” users can now utilize I2P via their Android devices, and the VPN service InVizible Pro incorporates both Tor and I2P into their service. You personally may not be comfortable using I2P, but there certainly is no shortage of bad actors and those looking for contraband who do. Don’t believe me? Just ask “DeSnake” … if you can find him.