Today, the Tor Project is holding our second annual State of the Onion, an event where Tor teams and the larger Tor community come together to share what we've accomplished this year, and what we're looking forward to in 2022.
Every donation between now and December 31 will be matched, 1:1, by Friends of Tor. Stand up for the human right to privacy and donate to the Tor Project today. Plus… new swag!
Today, Oct 21, 2021, is the very first Global Encryption Day, organized by the Global Encryption Coalition. Global Encryption Day is an opportunity for businesses, civil society organizations, technologists, and millions of Internet users worldwide to show our communities why encryption matters. It’s also a day for all of us to pledge to Make the Switch to encrypted services (like Tor!) and prioritize our privacy and security online.
Hello, Tor world! We owe you a thank you. In August, you helped us raise $107,672.20 for the Bug Smash Fund this year! Thank you to everybody who made a contribution to the Bug Smash Fund during the month of August. This work is critical in helping us to provide safer tools for millions of people around the world exercising their human rights to privacy and freedom online.
The Bug Smash Fund is back for its third year! In 2019, we launched Tor’s Bug Smash Fund to raise money that would support our developers finding and fixing bugs in our software and to conduct routine maintenance. Maintenance isn’t a flashy new feature, and that makes it less interesting to many traditional funders, but it’s what keeps the reliable stuff working--and with your support, we’ve closed 370 Bug Smash Fund tickets.
Last August, we asked you to help us fundraise during our second annual Bug Smash Fund campaign. We want to share an update on some of the work that the second year of the Bug Smash Fund has made possible. Since 2019, we've marked 410 tickets with BugSmashFund. As of today, 373 of those tickets have been closed, and 37 of them are still in progress.
Every year, the Tor Project completes a Form 990 and independent audit of our financial statements. After completing standard audits for 2019-2020, our federal tax filings and audit are both available. We upload all of our tax documents and publish a blog post about these documents in order to be transparent.
Every June, we recognize Pride month because internet freedom and the human rights of LGBTQIA+ people go hand in hand. Many LGBTQIA+ people need privacy and censorship circumvention tools like Tor to communicate with their peers, find important resources, or fight for their rights without facing violence.
In mid-May, the Tor Project held a nonfungible token (NFT) auction of a generative art piece we called Dreaming at Dusk, created by artist Itzel Yard (ixshells) and derived from the private key of the first onion service, Dusk.
This action was held on Foundation and resulted in a final bid of 500 Ethereum (ETH), roughly $2M USD at the time of the auction, with the proceeds going towards the Tor Project and our work to improve and promote Tor.
Last August, we asked you to help us fundraise during our second annual Bug Smash Fund campaign. We want to share an update on some of the work that the second year of the Bug Smash Fund has made possible.