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I've read the Bitmessage whitepaper and I found it rather lacking on the details, but it promises anonymous routing. Can it be considered a variation on mix-networks, where each peer acts as a mix-node?

e-sushi
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user11477
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1 Answers1

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YES. What mix-networks provide is anonymous routing. Using a chain of proxies, incoming messages are shuffled and then they are sent in random order. So, the sender remains anonymous. Similarly the Bitmessage protocol mixes all encrypted messages of a given user with all other encrypted messages of the network. As a result, the sender remains invisible. Here, each peer acts as a mix-node.

e-sushi
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deltaaruna
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    thats what wikipedia says but the whitepaper does not state anything in this direction. Do you know/have any accurate description of the full protocol? – DrLecter Jan 17 '14 at 20:28
  • I too would prefer to see the actual protocol's description instead of a Wikipedia interpretation. That is, unless you could explain why the Wikipedia description contains things the whitepaper doesn't define... and why. (I personally know why, but before I vote on your answer, I would like to see if you also know the reason because providing it would add some missing value and quality to your answer.) – e-sushi Jan 18 '14 at 14:10