Plausibly Deniable Content Discovery for Bitswap Using Random Walks

TL;DR

This paper proposes a modification to the Bitswap protocol in IPFS that uses random-walk proxies to enhance user privacy by enabling plausible deniability during content discovery, with simulation results showing improved privacy and acceptable performance.

Contribution

It introduces a novel protocol modification for Bitswap that employs random-walk proxies to obfuscate content interests, enhancing privacy in peer-to-peer networks.

Findings

Enhanced privacy with plausible deniability during content discovery

Maintains acceptable performance levels in simulations

Effective source obfuscation using random-walk proxies

Abstract

Bitswap is the data exchange protocol for the content-addressed peer-to-peer overlay network IPFS. During content discovery, Bitswap reveals the interest of a peer in content to all neighbors, enabling the tracking of user interests. In our paper, we propose a modification of the Bitswap protocol, which enables source obfuscation using proxies for content discovery. The proxies are selected via a random-walk. Enabling content discovery through proxies introduces plausible deniability. We evaluate the protocol modification with a simulation. The protocol modification demonstrates enhanced privacy, while maintaining acceptable performance levels.