Daunt

Dread’s Daunt Directory

Daunt, a novel addition to the Dread Network developed by HugBunter and his team, represents a pioneering advancement in hidden service link directories by integrating DDoS protection as a foundational feature. This development comes after Dread faced significant DDoS disruptions from 2020 to late 2022, necessitating a comprehensive overhaul of its supporting infrastructure.

DDoS attacks, by their nature, compromise access not only to the targeted services but also to the broader network, inducing widespread instability. Within the Dread Network, Daunt leverages login APIs to authenticate users and categorize them into distinct groups based on usage statistics. This categorization facilitates the allocation of access to varying tiers of mirror links for listed services, enhancing security by enabling restrictions on certain groups from accessing these links. Daunt’s innovative approach to permission-based mirrors and protected access points serves both as a deterrent to malicious activities and as a mechanism to ensure legitimate traffic reaches its intended destination.

Announcement from the Dread Team and HugBunter:

On March 6th, 2023, we are thrilled to unveil Daunt: The authenticated Darknet link directory as part of the Dread Network. Daunt is not merely a link directory; it’s a strategic response to the persistent DoS attacks, offering a novel method of private mirror sharing. While not a definitive solution to DoS attacks, it facilitates more organic traffic flow to affected services, effectively circumventing these attacks as we anticipate the implementation of Proof of Work (PoW) enhancements for the Tor network, which have shown promising progress recently.

The genesis of Daunt was inspired by the challenge of sharing mirrors in a manner inaccessible to attackers, leveraging our extensive user data for verification purposes. This allows legitimate users to access different mirror sets based on their community standing. Although this initial version may not be flawless, we are committed to refining it based on user feedback and observed outcomes.

Daunt simplifies the process for service operators to submit their mirrors automatically for inclusion in the directory. Operators can categorize their links by “Tier,” setting access restrictions for each tier or opting for open access with simple authentication measures like captcha challenges. This flexible system allows operators to tailor their settings to their preferences.

Access to tiers may depend on various authentication factors, such as Dread membership status, account age, and other metrics. Specific tier requirements set by services will not be disclosed to users, who may find their access to mirrors varies by service based on these predefined tiers.

To authenticate with Daunt, users must generate a static authentication key through Dread’s code generator, found under Account -> Code Generator. This key, an encrypted summary of your Dread account stats, can be regenerated every seven days to remain current.

FAQ Highlights from Daunt:

• Daunt’s Availability: In case of Daunt’s onion address outage, users should save all Daunt mirrors listed in the directory. While outages are anticipated, efforts to scale the service should mitigate impact on other targeted services. A clear