COSCUP 2026 Call for Proposals

anoni.net is a community of open-source technologists based in Taiwan, working on anonymity, privacy and digital security. We write practical guidance for Chinese-speaking readers and support localized tooling and shared knowledge. Our outreach and documentation center on the open-source projects Tor, Tails and OONI.

COSCUP has long organized an annual conference for open-source communities. Many anonymity and anti-censorship tools are developed as free software and rely on community review, documentation and infrastructure work. Our proposed track was accepted as a two-day COSCUP 2026 community track, with sessions and workshops on 8 and 9 August at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST). The call invited researchers, practitioners, NGO staff, civic-tech developers and community members to share observations, hands-on tool use and field experience in line with the open-source conference setting.

COSCUP 2026 Anonymity Networks Community track

Event and timeline

• Dates: 8 and 9 August 2026, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST)
• Joint CFP deadline: 23 May 2026 (AoE) (extended from 9 May)
• Acceptance announcements: 9 June 2026
• Schedule: Pretalx scheduling completed by 23 June 2026

The official dates are those on the COSCUP blog.

Goals for 2026

• Shared knowledge: turn anonymity and privacy guidance into openly licensed documentation that everyday users can adopt.
• Tech communities and civic settings: give developers, researchers, NGOs, journalists, civil-society groups and tech community members a chance to meet and talk across domains.
• Local collaboration: hands-on work and discussion in Taiwan on campus Tor relays, teaching and materials for Tails (the portable amnesic operating system), personal privacy protection, censorship measurement with OONI, and lawful anonymous payments (including on-chain tools such as stablecoins).

Topics

The topics served as orientation for proposals, and content was not limited to these bullets. Formats were open: talks, blended teaching workshops, experience reports and tool demos. Proposals tied to free software or open-source projects (upstream contribution, issues, documentation, localization, licensing, reproducible builds, open data, open standards) could say so briefly, to align with COSCUP's open-source context. The four main threads were personal privacy, anonymous networks, anonymous payments and international participation, and cross-cutting proposals were encouraged.

Personal privacy

Personal privacy shapes how safely people use the internet, manage identity data and keep everyday autonomy. Under cross-border travel, tourism, short stays or migration, device checks, network conditions, account and payment records, cloud sync and data retention can sharply raise risk. This topic called for understandable, actionable methods drawn from real situations.

Anonymous networks and internet freedom

Anonymous networks and internet freedom are long-standing priorities for the community. They bear on whether people under surveillance, blocking or differential routing can still connect reliably, communicate safely and keep space for information flow and expression. This topic called for practical anonymous connectivity, risk assessment in censored environments, infrastructure participation, and experience with Tor, Tails and OONI, including teaching design, measurement methods and local outreach.

Anonymous payments

Financial records often tie to real identity, social ties and movement, which shapes safety for individuals and organizations. Civil-society and advocacy groups also have to protect supporters, donors and beneficiaries under lawful conditions while balancing transparency and internal risk. This topic called for anonymous donation and payment design, cryptocurrency tools in different contexts and their limits, and cryptocurrency law and compliance (regulatory compliance, accounting, cross-border rules, audit and risk disclosure).

International participation

Local communities working with global organizations can turn tools, knowledge and advocacy into action on the ground, and feed experience from Taiwan back into international networks. This topic called for experience collaborating with the Tor Project, Tails, OONI, EFF and related projects, and for how volunteers, translation, documentation, relays, measurement and outreach fit together across borders.

Other related topics

Further angles on anonymity, privacy and internet freedom, including extensions of the four topics above, offered as ideas rather than a closed list.

Keywords for brainstorming (not exhaustive)

• Privacy risk when traveling across borders, tourism, short stays or migration: device checks, public Wi-Fi, account recovery, cloud sync, data retention
• Personal privacy practice: identity and account management, two-factor authentication, DNS, VPN, proxy, separating work and personal identity
• De-identification and metadata in files, images, chat and cloud collaboration, sources of accidental leaks and how to reduce risk
• Digital security and exercise design for NGOs, independent journalists, newsrooms or frontline roles in high-risk settings
• Whistleblower protection, anonymous reporting, secure communication and file exchange workflows
• Tails (including integration with Tor and built-in tools), OnionShare and related open anonymity toolchains: teaching, verifiable downloads, Chinese-language docs or curricula
• Snowflake, bridges and relays in the global anonymous network: volunteering, risk communication, and policy conversations inside organizations
• OONI list maintenance, AS coverage and measurement gaps, local measurement and data collaboration, volunteer training and data storytelling
• Anonymous connectivity and reading censored environments: Tor relay operations, circumvention strategy, observability, and explaining misuse risk
• ISP blocking, network resilience, real-name rules and identity data, cross-border data exchange, and human-rights framing in internet freedom and policy advocacy (technical or advocacy)
• Anonymous payments and donations: data exposure along payment paths, protecting supporters, organizational receipts and public communication
• Cryptocurrency law and compliance: regulatory compliance, accounting, cross-border rules, audit, risk disclosure and jurisdiction-specific limits
• International collaboration in practice: working with the Tor Project, Tails, OONI and EFF, and tying together translation, docs, relays, measurement and local outreach
• Terminology and translation for anonymity and privacy in Chinese contexts, primers and handouts, local cases and culture, glossaries
• Second devices, backups and destruction workflows, digital and physical security when devices are seized or inspected (within lawful bounds)
• Cypherpunk ideas, zero-knowledge proofs, privacy-enhancing protocols, and the status and applications of open-source projects
• Open-source licensing, reproducible builds, supply chain and download verification, community trust and governance
• Other topics closely tied to anonymity, privacy, internet freedom and digital security that help participants take action

Joint review with ETHTaipei

In 2026 we partnered with ETHTaipei (the Taipei Ethereum Community) on programming. The two communities approach anonymous payments from different angles, so to put each proposal in front of the most fitting audience, the call used a joint review:

• Application-oriented and introductory talks: prioritized for the anoni.net community track
• Technical and protocol-level talks: possibly moved to the ETHTaipei blockchain track

Speakers did not need to choose a track themselves, as placement was settled with them during review. Both communities cross-promoted their schedules, so attendees could move between the two tracks to follow related topics.

At the time of the call, a joint anonymous payments session was planned for Day 2 (9 August), and speakers could note in their submission that they wanted to be part of it. The joint session finally ran on the afternoon of 8 August in room TR-511, as listed on COSCUP 2026 Anonymity Networks Community track.

How to submit

Submissions went through the official COSCUP 2026 Pretalx.

• CFP and submission: COSCUP 2026 Pretalx CFP page
• Event home: COSCUP 2026 on Pretalx
• Submission form: Submit a proposal
• Organizer CFP reference: COSCUP x UbuCon Asia 2026 CFP details

Proposals had to state:

1. Topic area: which of the topics above it maps to
2. Format: talk, workshop, demo, other
3. Audience: general public, technical community, NGO staff, or mixed
4. Duration: 30 or 50 minutes
5. Demo needs (if any): venue or equipment requirements

Questions about the call or the track can go to whisper@anoni.net.

Ethics and open licensing

Everything we share assumes lawful use. Workshops and sessions do not support money laundering, tax evasion or other illegal activity. Proposals involving cryptocurrency, coin mixers or anonymity tools were to aim at education and risk awareness, and to remind audiences that laws differ by place and that attendees must verify what is lawful where they are.

In keeping with COSCUP's open-source and open collaboration values, the conference expects speakers to release shareable materials, slides and demos under open licenses per official rules, so the community can preserve, redistribute and adapt them. Proposals including third-party material, unpublished research or sections that should not be public had to note the scope and limits in the proposal or before the session. Actual license terms, delivery timing and exceptions follow the official COSCUP announcements and the latest text on Pretalx.

About COSCUP

COSCUP (Conference for Open Source Coders, Users, and Promoters) is an annual conference run by Taiwan's open-source communities, focused on open-source code and culture so developers, users and promoters can meet in one place. See the COSCUP website for more.

With this track, anoni.net wanted tech communities and civil-society groups, advocates and frontline workers to meet, talk and keep collaborating, bringing tools and field experience back to their own contexts.

The conference is free to attend and not run for ticket revenue, which keeps the barrier to entry low. That setting suits sessions on anonymity and privacy within an open-source atmosphere, and it lets people who prefer to attend quietly, under a pseudonym or with minimal personal data walk straight in (still subject to conference and venue rules).

Related links

• COSCUP 2026 Anonymity Networks Community track
• About anoni.net
• Continuing from 2025 into 2026: Personal Privacy Guidelines, Tor Relay Campus Deployment Competition, and Exploration of Anonymous Payments
• Anonymous Network Workshop 2025/08