As I started to gain a more serious interest in privacy-preserving tech and censorship resistance, I stumbled upon Unredacted, a non-profit organization with a unique character of its own. After becoming somewhat familiar with the crowd in their self-hosted Matrix, I immediately thought it would be great to try and have some of my questions answered in an interview. The more active members are definitely educated in the technologies employed by Unredacted, adding to the educational content just by having open conversations about various topics ranging from IT to cryptography.
Organization History and Background
NexusOcean: Hey Zach, so I discovered Unredacted through the Tor relay associations page as I was first getting involved in setting up a bridge and learning about the project in general. Your organization stands out among the other US-based groups I checked out and it definitely has its own unique vibe. Can you tell us a little more about how it all got started and your role within the organization?
Unredacted: I'm glad that you found us, and thought we were unique. Unredacted has been around in some shape or form since at least 2015. It started as a hobby project called Crypto World that had a public forum and many privacy-friendly services (many of which are defunct). One of our first services was xmpp.is, which is still around today. We also operated Tor relays, a Mumble voice chat server and various other things. In 2021, we officially rebranded as Unredacted and we sought to become a non-profit later on. Becoming a non-profit just made sense, because we always intended for our services to be free and we never profited from them. Today, we operate a much more broad set of services with a focus on privacy and censorship evasion. Our primary goal is to help people get connected to the free and open Internet, and protect their right to privacy (all without cost). Many people living in countries with authoritarian governments aren't able to access basic and critical information about the reality of our world. This has to change.
As of now, Unredacted is a BDFL (benevolent dictator for life) led non-profit with myself serving as the Executive Director. I fill almost every role, and I enjoy it despite the amount of work and not paying myself a dime. We also have one official volunteer focusing on the moderation of our services, while others in our community provide advice and other types of assistance. I created this organizational structure to avoid hostile takeover and remain ultra-efficient. For how small we are, we do a whole lot. None of which would be possible without our generous donors.
Personal Philosophy and Evolution
NexusOcean: One of the most interesting things about relay associations and Tor in general is that they are non-profit organizations. I strongly agree with the sentiment that protecting people's right to privacy and open access to information allows humanity to develop more freely, as mentioned when first entering the official website. Was there anything in particular that inspired you to turn these ideas into a tangible organization, or was it just the natural next step for you as a supporter of privacy-preserving technologies in general?
Unredacted: For me, these ideas evolved over time. I've always thought privacy was important and that government-imposed Internet censorship was bad. It allows authoritarianism to thrive and has the potential to squash diversity. I felt like I should do something about it, and make an actual impact and not simply hold those beliefs and nothing else. I think inaction can be so dangerous, because thoughts or beliefs alone don't change anything - action does. I urge and encourage more people to do what we do, and support those that do it.
Legal Challenges and Compliance
NexusOcean: As someone very new to the Tor project, much less as an individual, I carefully navigated the Tor website and took anything related to legalities very seriously. Have you ever encountered any issues running relays or any difficulties related to the organization in general?
Unredacted: We have not encountered any significant legal challenges. We do respond to and cooperate with law enforcement when required to do so, and are in compliance with US federal and state law where we operate. We do have a transparency page which goes over some crucial info, and which we regularly update: https://unredacted.org/about/transparency/
Current Services and Infrastructure
NexusOcean: Unredacted also offers other privacy-based services and education in general. Can you tell us more about what the organization provides as far as privacy, security, and infrastructure are concerned?
Unredacted: We have 3 main categories of services at the moment; Censorship Evasion (CE), Secure Infrastructure (SI) and Unredacted Education (UE). CE is focused on services which help with evading censorship, such as Tor exit relays, FreeSocks (which provides free Outline/Shadowsocks access keys) and proxies for Signal and Telegram. SI is home to our privacy & security focused public infra such as xmpp.is, our Matrix server, blockchain remote nodes and collaboration infra (such as Etherpad, Jitsi and more coming soon). UE is focused on creating guides at the moment, but it's possible we could expand into other areas of educational outreach.
Much of our infrastructure runs on our very own network (AS401401 & AS401720) and hardware which we colocate. We currently have 2 PoPs, and will likely expand to more in the future. Operating our own infrastructure from the ground up is really important, as it allows for a lot more control.
Cryptocurrency Support
NexusOcean: I also couldn't help but notice that on the donate page of the official website, Unredacted accepts crypto donations, particularly privacy-preserving coins, in addition to more conventional forms of payment. Is there any direct overlap between the organization and crypto at the moment, or any personal interest in these types of coins in general?
Unredacted: Yes! We are big supporters of cryptocurrency, especially privacy-centered ones such as Monero and Zcash. There is no direct overlap right now in terms of cryptocurrency and our organization, but we would willingly accept sponsorships from cryptocurrency companies or organizations. I have a personal interest in cryptocurrency, and have for a very long time.
Future Experiments and Development
NexusOcean: Tor is just one part of Unredacted and the way I discovered the project, but are there any other emerging technologies or interests that you hope to get involved with in the future?
Unredacted: Definitely, we are thinking and working on experiments to support and build out new anti-censorship and privacy-focused infrastructure through our Unredacted Labs project. Not too long ago, we came up with 2 experiments called NoiseNet and GreenWare. NoiseNet is an experimental anycast network that attempts to introduce noise (randomness) and an additional layer of encryption into parts of our network, making it more more difficult for censors to monitor and perform traffic correlation attacks against parts of our infrastructure. NoiseNet is used today by our Tor exit relays, and we have many future plans to improve our network's resiliency and performance. GreenWare is our initiative to reduce our carbon footprint by designing power efficient infra that is easy to scale. GreenWare is also in use today. For the nitty-gritty details, I recommend reading our blog post on these experiments: https://unredacted.org/blog/2025/05/unredacted-labs/
Community Engagement and Transparency
NexusOcean: I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions about your organization and I'm looking forward to seeing how Unredacted continues to grow. I initially joined the Matrix chat to get more acquainted with the non-profit, which was surprisingly active and remains so. How would you encourage others who are interested in Unredacted to learn more or even get involved?
Unredacted: I'm glad you joined our community, and I'm happy that you reached out. I love to talk about these topics. We like to be open and transparent, and the best way to learn more about us is following us on social media, reading our blog posts, and if you still have more questions or want to follow along more closely - our Matrix space is our most active community: https://matrix.to/#/#space:unredacted.org
Quickly wrapping up the interview, I would urge those interested in Unredacted to check out their website to learn more, or even make a donation in order to help provide and maintain what have become essential freedoms in a digital age.
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