[dudehere]

2. Yes, random whether a chosen gateway works or not. A list of alternative gateways can be supported, in principle. Use local IPFS node software to use ipfs://... links instead, if the hardcoded IPFS gateway doesn't work for you.

3. IPFS node and gateway are different things. A gateway is vulnerable to takedowns. A node isn't nearly as vulnerable. And if you run IPFS Desktop or similar software on a VPN connection, what's really left to be afraid of, conceptually? Pretty much nothing. It may throttle the traffic a bit, but that's no problem. Pick MullVad VPN or some other like NordVPN etc. Free test days are available usually.

I don't know why exactly, but edonkey was killed by intercepting participants' IPs, but even without encryption it has not yet happened to BitTorrent. With VPN it's just unfeasible.

[bscphil]

> Yes, random whether a chosen gateway works or not

That might be true, but what I was saying in the OP was that the interface at libgen.fun usually does not work for me in Firefox, but the direct link to the gateway (the same one that the interface is using internally) almost always works for me.

> And if you run IPFS Desktop or similar software on a VPN connection, what's really left to be afraid of, conceptually?

Yes, but most users are going to download through an interface like this one. The concern is that this will put a legal burden on prominent public gateways once they become the targets of DMCAs and that rights holders may even be able to put pressure on university networks to block IPFS entirely, harming the whole network.

You seem sure that people downloading or pinning content on the IPFS network are all using a VPN. I'm not so certain of that. The situation is rather similar to Bittorrent, I expect. It's certainly true that Bittorrent as a whole hasn't been killed (nor could it plausibly be), but (a) it's routinely blocked on certain networks, making it harder for certain people to use it even for legal purposes, (b) most people in fact don't use VPNs and rights holders do send takedowns (via ISPs) threatening lawsuits or demanding payments, (c) even on private trackers, VPN use isn't ubiquitous. If any of these trackers reuse public torrent hashes, their users are at risk of being port scanned.

[dudehere]

Didn't quite get the problem with .fun. Doesn't FF render it properly? It's a pretty conservative code behind, really nothing outstanding compared to the code of 2008. What's your JS version in the browser?

Real life has shown users are never hunted. Operators are, since they hold stuff. A random user out of a million of such a month on mostly a protected connection should really not think anybody will have a wish to find him. It's absolutely unfeasible and should only be mentioned as a joke.