In an announcement Green said “it is no longer appropriate” for him to be the part of the Tor Project, whether his contribution is time-based or financial. Green is one of the people who were part of the Tor Project before the network was known as Tor, to begin with. He is also one of those who ran one of the first five nodes ever introduced in Tor, and across years, he has gained the trust of the Tor Project to allow him to manage special nodes inside the network. For the uninitiate, The Tor network, also known as the Onion router, uses a series of nodes and relays to mask user traffic and disguise both origins and IP addresses. The network is used by users who love anonymity and privacy, mostly activists, dissidents, journalists etc. As of now, Green manages crucial Tor node “Tonga,” the “Bridge Authority,” which is a critical network component, alongside a number of fast Tor relays. He has announced that he will be closing the “Bridge Authority”with immediate effect along with all the associated cryptographic keys. This does give other developers time to substitute the node and relays, but the removal of critical network components is still a blow to Tor — especially as the network is supported by volunteer contributions. Other than saying that he is leaving Tor project due to ethical issues, Green has not clarified details. He has hinted that “recent events” at Tor project prompted his exit. “I feel that I have no reasonable choice left within the bounds of ethics, but to announce the discontinuation of all Tor-related services hosted on every system under my control,” Green says. “I wish the Tor Project nothing but the best moving forward through those difficult times.” The developer is likely referring to two recent, major events which have rocked the foundations of the project.As a result, last week, it was decided that the Tor Project Board of Directors would be replaced. Green may not be the new Board of Directors, or is siding with Jacob Applebaum, an important figure who was forced to leave the Tor Project following some serious accusations of sexual harassment.
