Darklogs: anonymous blogging service using Bitmessage

Depending on where you live and what you want to blog about, you may want to make sure that you stay anonymous doing so. This can be because of simple things, like writing about topics that interfere with your current work situation or environment you live in, to bypass censorship attempts, or write about things that would get you or your family in a lot of trouble.

While you can try and publish on public blogging platforms, ideally by using additional means of staying off the radar such as using TOR or virtual private networks, you can also try the Darklogs service instead.

Darklogs is a web service that accepts Bitmessage messages. Bitmessage itself is a messaging software based on Bitcoin, but without the virtual currency mining and trading that is involved usually.

The software is available for Windows, Mac OS X and as a source code for Linux distributions. If you use the Windows version, you only need to run it once it has been downloaded to get started.

Note: Your security software may object to the program. An analysis of the latest Windows executable on Virustotal returned that it is clean. Make sure you allow the program to run on your system.

You are asked if you want to go online right away, which you can do if you want. Before you can do anything you need to create at least one identity for yourself, and make sure that the network settings are properly configured.

Bitmessage listens on port 8444 by default, so make sure your firewall or router allows this to happen.

You can create a new identity easily by selecting Identities > New in the interface. Either have the program create a random address for you, or use a passphrase to create one manually instead.

Once that is out of the way, switch to the Send tab. DarkLogs accepts messages to the address BM-2cTUZmrFaypXnAR4DAXLbAb6KrFPRhGyEe, so add that one to the to address part of the form.

Add a subject, which will become the title of your new blog post, and the message here, and hit the send button afterwards.

The sending may take some time, usually less than a minute but sometimes more than that depending on a number of factors.

Once you get the "Acknowledgment of the message received" status under Sent, you can check out the new blog post in the following way:

1. Go back to the identities tab in the Bitmessage interface.
2. Right-click on the address that you used for the message and select copy address to clipboard.
3. Load http://www.darklogs.com/YourAdress in your browser of choice, e.g. http://www.darklogs.com/BM-2cTeYSPLfNTKDUB8jMRUrnjmePHmiJmm1o/

It needs to be noted that this is a basic blogging service. HTML is not supported, which leaves you with plain text and paragraphs, but nothing else.

It is also important to note that recent posts get published on the frontpage of the service, so do not use this for private messages (use Bitmessage direct for that).

To remain anonymous, do not post any personally identifiable information in your messages. The creator of the service notes that entities with access to an Internet backbone connection or access to network traffic from both Bitmessage clients, may be able to identify your location or you.

To overcome this, it is suggested to make use of TOR while using Bitmessage.

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