Forcing encryption in torrent extention

[srirambv]

From community https://community.brave.com/t/forcing-encryption-in-torrent-extention/1755

Not that I use it regularly but I think Brave should deploy the torrent extension with 'Force encryption' as a prerequisite and any other security and privacy features upon advice of the community.

cc: @feross

[feross]

I can take a look at what it takes to implement this when I'm in the office on Thursday. From what I've heard, torrent encryption does not offer much in the way of true privacy or security. It's more like packet obfuscation to make it harder for hostile ISPs to identify traffic as BitTorrent. Doesn't hurt to look into it further though.

[NumDeP]

I figured (for others) it would be helpful for research purposes to post the link related to other clients, protocols and their supported features -

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_protocol_encryption

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29726692/why-cant-torrent-traffic-be-encrypted

• https://www.best-bittorrent-vpn.com/torrent-encryption.html

One thing I didn't know before viewing the link above was that choosing Forced Encryption sort of deprives a user of a greater number of peers, though I think given certain revelations regarding the data industry, I think many if not most connect to encryption-enabled peers now-a-days and thus generate a greater number of peers.