The Tor Project has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the maintenance of the browser. The makers hope to raise $75,000 to fix bugs and maintain the platform.
The makers behind the anomization browser have re-established the annual Bug Smash Fund. This is an annual crowdfunding campaign in which the makers collect money to make time for bug fixes. In addition to browser software bugs, network maintenance, bug fixes on the metrics page, and documentation updates are also required. The makers don’t state a target of how many bugs to fix or which ones have priority. They say they are aiming for $ 75,000 in donations, which is about 73,000 euros. Many volunteers work at the Tor Project, but also a few people in permanent employment. When the corona crisis erupted, the foundation had to lay off a third of those employees because the number of donations fell.
The browser’s founders say that this year they have worked on Connection Assist, a function that makes it easier to switch nodes that are blocked by censorship. There has also been better support via Telegram, among others. The browser has also been made more stable and better protected against denial-of-service attacks and network congestion. These developments mean that ‘more maintenance will be required in the future’.
Last year, the Tor Project also set up a Bug Smash Fund crowdfunding. Then the foundation raised $107,000, with an average of $60 per donation. At that time 241 bugs were fixed, also in various areas in the software and in the network.
