Oh nvm i've read the rest

Anyone know of discord alternatives?
https://youtu.be/ksAeOiIydJA

(TL:DW: discuck now requiring face / ID scans because UK/AUS govt wants to "protect the children", will definitely spread to the rest of the platform given time)

Having to exodus my friend group to something else wouldn't be the end of the world but there would be a few lost along the way

The dark web is both not a singular web nor is it really anything special.

First, there are a bunch of different dark webs. Any time you create some routing protocol on top of the internet you create an overnet; A darknet is an overnet with an intentional focus on security and privacy. For example, the bittorrent DHT used for .magnet torrents is an overnet, but not a darknet because it doesn't try to protect your identity

The dark web everyone thinks of when it's mentioned is Tor, which is an acronym for "The Onion Router". It started as a DARPA project to create a secure, anonymous, censorship proof communication system with undercover agents in hostile countries, but it was quickly realized that to properly blend in the project had to be available for everyone. This led to the code being open sourced and made available for everyone to use. Obviously, the US still uses it to this day for spying ops

However, Tor is not the only darknet out there. Other contenders include I2P, Gnutella (kinda), Perfect Dark, Yggdrasil, Freenet, IPFS (kinda), Tribler, and more. They all take a different crack at how to do security and anonymity and for what purpose to be secure and anonymous. Tribler, for example, uses a Tor-like routing scheme for torrenting. I2P is my personal favorite, and makes every computer in the network participate as a router as compared to Tor's entry/guard/hop/exit node structure

Most darknets aren't even that complicated. Distributed Hash Tables are a bit difficult to wrap your head around, but the actual underlying tech is relatively simple. Tor is basically just 3 proxies chained together, I2P has 3 proxies for inbound and another 3 for outbound traffic. They're basically souped up VPNs (VPN is a shit term because everyone uses it as a synonym for proxy, which is half correct but misses the full meaning, but whatever it's what people know)

Oh, and the term "darkweb" and "darknet" come from the same concepts of the internet and world wide web. Darknets aren't darkwebs just like how the internet isn't the world wide web. Darkwebs are built on darknets, the same way the www is built on the internet

What people refer to as a VPN is almost never actually a VPN. VPN stands for "Virtual Private Network", and is a specific type of proxy. Proxies are just computers that forward internet traffic - you could arguably call them routers, but the intentional use of a proxy to obfuscate the source of traffic is enough to differentiate them. When something claims to be a VPN it implies - actually, states - that you'll have access to some internal network. The typical use-case for a VPN is accessing a network from elsewhere, say accessing your gaymr PC on the go or some research computer from the uni you attend

"VPN" Companies, like Nord or Mullvad, do not sell you a VPN. They sell you a proxy. You're not getting access to a network, you're getting access to a server that will obfuscate your traffic so you can pirate vidya without getting a cease and desist from some random company / getting your internet cut off

ALSO "VPN"s don't really make you all that much safer than a bare connection. Sure, proxies are enough that some people can't trace you (say, Activision-Blizzard), but if the govt comes a knocking you're fucked. This is where darknets come in; by having 3 or more proxies in the chain, it makes directly tracing you much much harder (to the point where even govts have a hard time). Darknets won't make you invincible - if you're retarded and identify yourself then you're compromised - but they're a hell of a lot better than the competition

Autistic rant over

Why don't we make a bomb/missile that launches to the edge of space and then circles around the earth a bunch to gain speed, then drop directly onto a target? We already have a bomber that does this (goes to edge of space), why not a missile?