The biton overlay network

Bypassing information controls with biton

https://bitonproject.org

biton is a decentralized network for bypassing online censorship and surveillance. It works by relaying requests through other biton users in order to provide anonymous routing and file sharing. Moreover, it can be deployed over mesh topologies and community networks, and in that way function during Internet shutdowns. biton aims to defend against various tactics used by modern censors, such as protocol fingerprinting, traffic analysis, and bridge enumeration.

Visit https://demo.bitonproject.org for a live demo of the Web interface.

Project structure

Reference implementation of biton0_BitTorrent as an extension to WebTorrent. In specific, this package exports biton-hybrid as a Node.js module which extends webtorrent-hybrid and can therefore connect to both TCP/uTP and WebRTC nodes.

• lib/biton-ext.js the biton extension
• biton-hybrid.js main module, the biton hybrid node using lib/biton-ext
• bin/biton-hybrid-app.js command line and Web interface for biton-hybrid
• bin/views/entangled.js entangled Web demo

See here for instructions on how to run the biton hybrid app on your computer, and here about integrating biton into your own project.

Disclaimer

UNDER DEVELOPMENT. This proof of concept implementation must not be used besides for simulations.

Install

Setup the development environment

Install Node.js and npm through the package manager of your operating system (instructions here). Then,

# Clone git repository
git clone [email protected]:bitonproject/biton
cd biton

# Install node modules
npm install

Compile browser client resources

npm run-script build

This will compile views/index.js and its dependencies into bin/public/bundle.js.

biton command (optional)

npm link

# Now you can start a biton hybrid client by executing
biton

This has to be executed once and will keep track of your local modifications (creates a symlink for node bin/biton-hybrid-app.js).

Usage

Integrate biton into your Node.js project

Install the biton npm module

cd MyApp/
npm install --save biton

Join biton swarms and listen for events

const biton = require('biton')

const opts = {
  strangers: true,  // Enable peer discovery over the BitTorrent Mainline DHT
  netMagic: 'test'  // Connect to the test network
}
const node = new biton(opts)

// Wait for node to generate a biton identity
node.once('bitonReady', onNodeReady)

// Generate new identity
node.getNewIdentity()

function onNodeReady() {
  // Join the 'MyApp' local network
  const myAppNet= node.joinLocalNet('MyApp')
  // Attach listener for new connections in the 'MyApp' swarm
  myAppNet.on('wire', onMyAppWire)

  // Join the global biton network
  // (recommended unless nodes are behind bandwidth capped connections, e.g. mobile Internet)
  const globalNet = node.joinGlobalNet()
}

// Handle new connections
function onMyAppWire (wire) {
  const peerId = wire.peerId
  const bitonExt = wire._ext.biton

  bitonExt.once('wireNoiseReady', function() {
      console.log('Completed noise handshake with peer %s', peerId)
  })
}

Embedding biton in websites

biton can be bundled into a javascript file that can be embedded into any website, e.g. with Browserify as we do in this repository. connect with biton nodes that support WebRTC. For that you can use For that you will also need to serve the .wasm files, since they are not included in Browserify (as in bin/public).

For more information about how to develop applications for biton visit the developers guide.

Running biton Node.js app

Start bin/biton-hybrid-app.js. Set biton* debug namespace, enable opennet peer discovery over BitTorrent Mainline DHT, and connect to the global biton swarm.

DEBUG=biton* OPENNET=true JOINGLOBAL=true npm start

Environment variables

Name	Purpose
DEBUG	Specify debugging namespaces (e.g. biton*)
OPENNET	Connect to strangers via Mainline DHT (default false)
JOINGLOBAL	Join the global biton swarm (default false)
SWARMSEED	Join a biton community swarm (default is the global biton swarm)
NETMAGIC	Join independent biton networks (default is the main net)
PORT	The Web interface listening port (default 5000)
HOST	The Web interface host address (default 127.0.0.1)
NODE_ENV=production	Expose Web interface to public requests

Access the local Web interface

The Web interface is listening at http://localhost:5000.

If you are accessing a local biton-hybrid-app with Firefox and cannot discover opennet peers, make sure that you are not blocking all third-party cookies, as this prevents connections to Mainline DHT seed nodes. You can temporarily whitelist localhost via the shield in the URL address bar (instructions here).

Running in Docker

Build the Docker image and start a container with the name biton-hybrid-client by executing:

docker-compose up --build

The respective files are:

• Dockerfile an image for the biton hybrid client
• docker-compose.yml a provisioning script for the above image

License

BSD 3-Clause