Seems very similar to Tor, but also supports anonymous sharing of large files, notably via BitTorrent, which Tor does not support well. Shame.
On Ubuntu 26.04, visiting i2p.net/en/downloads/ recommended me to download files.i2p.net/2.12.0/i2pinstall_2.12.0.jar so I did:
cd ~
wget https://files.i2p.net/2.12.0/i2pinstall_2.12.0.jar
sudo apt install openjdk-17-jre
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-amd64 PATH="$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH" java -jar ./i2pinstall_2.12.0.jar -console
Then after some clicking faff
cd ~/i2p
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-amd64 PATH="$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH" ./i2prouter start
and it told me:
Starting I2P Service...
Waiting for I2P Service....
running: PID:423806
and it automatically opened up a Chrome tab at: 127.0.0.1:7657/welcome
The default Java 8 installed on my machine is too old, needed 17 or above. Very annoying.
To make things more bearable I added this to my .bashrc:
i2p() (
  cd ~/i2p
  JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-amd64 PATH="$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH" ./i2prouter "$@"
)
so I can just:
i2p start
i2p stop
It does not come with a default browser... A popular option seems to be to install a praivate browser such as LibreWolf (Firefox based) to be your I2P thing www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFE1J9YhhWg Setting it up as such makes it not work as a regular clearnet browser. Instructions at: librewolf.net/installation/debian/
sudo apt update && sudo apt install extrepo -y
sudo extrepo enable librewolf && sudo extrepo update librewolf
sudo apt update && sudo apt install librewolf -y
Then go to Proxy settings and set Manual proxy configuration:
  • HTTP Proxy: 127.0.0.1:4444
  • SOCKS Host: 127.0.0.1:4447
Another setting you really want in LibreWolf is:
Don't enable HTTPS-Only Mode
otherwise it keeps complaining every time that pages are not https, because they are all http, because the security is happening at a lower layer of the protocol already.
Then I can visit the sample website tracker2.postman.i2p. It complains that it's not https, but I say, OK, I think I'm already mega encrypted figers crossed. It is a simple oldschool forum like phpBB where people announce their I2P compatible Torrents. From the posts I can copy a Magnet link and add it to 127.0.0.1:7657/i2psnark/, the built-in Torrent thing, the only convenient thing they have pre-setup for you :-)
Shame setting up this project is so difficult, it can never reach mainstream like this. Tor Browser and centralized VPN are so much more streamlined. But if it were mainstream, it would be boring? Early 200ss vibes come to mind.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:i2p-maintainers/i2p
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install i2p
but then when I ran:
i2prouter start
it fails with:
Starting I2P Service...
Removed stale pid file: /home/ciro/.i2p/i2p.pid
Waiting for I2P Service.....
WARNING: I2P Service may have failed to start.

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I2P by Wikipedia Bot 1
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I2P, or the Invisible Internet Project, is an anonymous overlay network designed to provide privacy and protection for its users' communications and activities online. It allows users to access websites, share files, and communicate in a way that aims to keep their identities and locations hidden. I2P operates on the principle of decentralized routing, where data is encrypted and sent through multiple nodes within the network, making it difficult to trace the origin and destination of the data.
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