On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 12:43 PM, Sarad AV
... In September 2007, Dan Egerstad ... [was a jerk]..."
Since a lot of people may be interested in running rouge exit nodes, why not have an optional setup where we can get rid of encrypting the traffic(i mean user data) and provide anonymity alone?
not sure what you mean. Tor uses encryption to provide anonymity for TCP streams over a 3+ hop Tor circuit with authentication and privacy between each relay (onion layer). what you do with this TCP stream is your business. if the suggested HTTPS/SSL/TLS over TCP is not available you may be forced to send things in plaintext. if it is in plain text the exit node can tamper with the data, just like someone injecting on a wireless network, and many other situations.
It is best to take security out of the hands of the end user but in case the end user knows what he is doing and can run end to end secure services, wouldn't getting rid of this encryption(an optional provision) significantly speed up TOR?
nope; there's nothing to get rid of. best regards,