Hey all! I've been keeping an eye on this forum from the onion link for quite a while but today I finally decided to bite the bullet, and I cloned the i2pd-browser repository from github and now I have access to I2P.

So from what I understand, I2P is like another layer of the darkweb and it's different from Tor, because there's no strict organization controlling I2P just volunteers? But I still struggle to understand how it's actually different from regular Tor, like is it better or worse?

Also having quite normal looking URLs is quite trippy, feels like I2P is the best of both worlds - clearnet and Tor. And are there any cool I2P link directories similar to daunt.link or tor.li for onions?

Comments

cumlord wrote on October 6, 2025 at 9:56 PM

#6,447

welcome to i2p, first stop should be http://notbob.i2p/, he reviews eepsites in his blog and the index separates services into categories there

the i2p and tor guide from http://simp.i2p/i2p-guide might be helpful, they work in similar but different ways, tl;dr (imo) tor is better for clearnet, i2p is better for darknet

Override wrote on October 7, 2025 at 7:30 AM

#6,448

+1 for looking at the tutorials from simp. It's a really useful website.

Here's a TLDR (but still look at simp's tutorials) :

Tor is centralized, in that there are a handful of special nodes called "directory authorities" that can essentially control the network. They are used to say who's a bad or a good node. They are in the hands of "very trusted people" but heh, it's a point of failure. I2P deals with threats differently, testing constantly every node it can find on the network and banning what it deems bad actors.
In Tor, nodes are run by volunteers. In I2P, everyone is a node. This means that more bandwidth should be available to I2P users and less DDOS or a more usable network. It also means that I2P is much more decentralized than Tor (something like 12 000 nodes vs over 40 000) despite having less users. It also means your computer relays the traffic of others and your traffic is "mixed" with traffic that isn't your own. It's very difficult to know if someone has a server, if they are browsing the internet, or are just running a basic node and relaying traffic.
As I2P is p2p, this means that you need to connect to other computers. People can know that you are on the I2P network, but don't know what your doing on it. However, unless you use special hidden bridges your ISP likely knows you are browsing Tor too. (And if the bridge is discovered, they will know you were on Tor).

- Tor is circuit switched. Once a circuit is build, all of the data will go through that route. In I2P (and if I understood correctly), a portion of the info you will send can go through any tunnel you build to the destination. A portion of the information will take a different path. Tor tunnels are also bi-directional and not unidirectional like I2P : when the server answers, it will answer to you through the same path, while in I2P, it will go through a different computer.

Tor only supports TCP while I2P supports TCP and UDP. This potentially allows for more applications to be built on I2P and also use less bandwidth.

The TLDR is that Tor is older in it's design and wasn't really designed for darknets. it's more a consequence of how it works. I2P aims to create a decentralized network and is designed from the ground up at darknets.

Now go read simp's webpage and fact-check me.