eMule FAQ

P2P networks all rely on a direct connection of two users to transfer data. To accomplish this the IP of the target client has to be known. This IP makes the user identifiable and trackable. There are only two ways of guaranteeing anonymity: routing the traffic over anonymizing proxy servers or bouncing it across other clients.
Proxy servers have numerous disadvantages: They can be closed down, the degree of anonymity depends on the trustworthiness of the admin and the traffic they process costs a lot of money. Let's assume an average 100.000 client eMule server. Each of the connected client causes 10kB/s traffic in each direction. The server would have to cope with a transfer volume of 2.000MB (1,9GB) per second. No-one can afford such servers.
Routing all traffic over third clients causes a similar problem as half of the traffic would be used for anonymizing. This means that each user would have to upload twice as much as now to keep the network's performance on the current level.
At the moment a secure and sensible way of anonymity in a P2P network is not feasible.