I would like to know if there’s a benefit or practical use for the I2P network. What use cases should we use I2P for.
- Uncensorable websites
- Anonymous Internet use
Did you read this?
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/alternative-networks/#i2p-the-invisible-internet-project
To add to answers above:
I2P, while similar to Tor, is more reliant on peer-to-peer (p2p) / federation to achieve its privacy and security goals.
I2P native services (incl but not limited to its “dark web”, which you couldn’t access any other way, not privately at least) like anonymous email and irc are practical uses of its network. Unlike Tor, I2P aims to be a generic L3-layer protocol, which means it can act as a “router” for most traffic with support for more protocols beyond TCP / HTTPS (for ex, I2P supports BitTorrent).
If you’re a developer, you can potentially embed I2P in your app and use it as if it was Internet/VPN or participate as a I2P “router” on the network, like a seeder would in the BitTorrent world (for Tor, see Snowflake). I2P also exploits its p2p nature to be censorship resistant (like IPFS), but it isn’t attacked or studied and scrutinized as much as Tor is. I2P’s cryptography (after the recent rewrite) is similar to WireGuard’s, while Tor is reliant on TLS among other techniques.
In general, I2P is one among many tools you’d need if you desire anonymity online (identity), or expose a service anonymously (websites), or build a new class of anonymous services, or participate in the network to aid censorship resistance.