tor & pgp glossary

30 terms

every term that gets thrown around in this scene - hsdirs and rendezvous points, ecdh and s2k, exit scams and captcha farms - explained in plain language, one page each. no gatekeeping, no wiki rabbit holes: what it is, why it matters here, and where to go next.

every entry links out to our free browser tools and news notes, so you can go from "what does this word mean" to actually using the thing.

tor network

onion service › an onion service is a website reachable only through the tor network at a .onion address, hiding both the server's location and the visitor's ip. v3 onion address › a v3 onion address is the modern 56-character .onion hostname derived directly from an ed25519 public key - self-authenticating and impossible to fake without the private key. prop224 › prop224 is the tor design proposal that specified version 3 onion services - the blueprint behind every modern .onion address. hsdir › an hsdir is a tor relay that volunteers to store signed descriptors for onion services, so visitors can find them without learning where the server really is. introduction point › an introduction point is a relay an onion service picks as a mailbox - clients hand their connection request there, and the service decides whether to meet them. rendezvous point › the rendezvous point is the relay where a tor client and an onion service finally meet - chosen by the client, known to neither side's real identity. guard relay › a guard relay is the fixed first hop of your tor circuits - you keep the same one for months so no single observer can watch both your traffic entering and leaving the network. exit relay › an exit relay is the last stop of a tor circuit - the hop that talks to the normal internet, sees the destination, and takes the most legal heat in the network. tor circuit › a tor circuit is the chain of three relays your traffic passes through, each unwrap peeling away one layer of encryption like an onion. obfs4 bridge › an obfs4 bridge is a secret tor entrance that disguises your traffic as random noise, for times when your internet provider blocks or scans for tor. snowflake › snowflake is a tor bridge system that bounces your connection through volunteers' browsers using webrtc, built to beat censorship with sheer numbers. tor browser › tor browser is a hardened firefox build that routes everything through tor and makes every user look alike - the default way to reach onion sites safely.

pgp & crypto

pgp / openpgp › pgp is the original encryption program; openpgp is the open standard it spawned - the message-signing and encryption system every market profile relies on. armored block › an armored block is pgp data wrapped in -----begin/end----- lines so keys and messages survive copy-paste, email and chat apps intact. fingerprint › a pgp fingerprint is a short hash of a public key - the one string you compare to prove a key is really theirs and not a scammer's upload. key pair › a key pair is the matched set of one public key you share and one private key you never share - the whole basis of pgp identity. ecdh › ecdh is a key-agreement method where two sides derive a shared secret from elliptic curve math - in pgp it is what actually scrambles messages made for a curve25519 key. curve25519 › curve25519 is the elliptic curve behind modern pgp encryption and tor's own crypto - fast, constant-time and hard to implement badly. ed25519 › ed25519 is a signature scheme on an elliptic curve - the algorithm whose public keys literally are v3 onion addresses. s2k › s2k (string-to-key) is the pgp routine that turns your passphrase into the actual encryption key protecting your private key file - slow on purpose. clearsigned message › a clearsigned message stays readable to anyone, but carries a pgp signature underneath that proves who wrote it and that nothing was changed.

opsec & security

opsec › opsec is the discipline of not leaking - deciding what an adversary would need to identify you and making sure that information never leaves your machine. threat model › a threat model is an honest list of who you are actually hiding from and what they can do - the first step before picking any privacy tool. socks5 proxy › a socks5 proxy is a simple traffic forwarder - tor exposes one on localhost, which is how ordinary applications get pushed through the tor network. exit node sniffing › exit node sniffing is when whoever runs the last relay of your circuit reads the unencrypted part of your traffic - the reason plain http over tor is a bad idea. tails › tails is a live operating system that boots from usb, routes absolutely everything through tor and wipes itself clean on shutdown.

market scene

exit scam › an exit scam is when a market's operators close shop and vanish with everyone's money still held in escrow - the single biggest financial risk of buying anywhere. coinjoin › coinjoin is a bitcoin technique where many strangers merge their payments into one big transaction, breaking the assumption that all inputs belong to one person. chain analysis › chain analysis is the business of following money on public blockchains - clustering addresses, spotting change outputs and turning bitcoin's transparency into leads. captcha farm › a captcha farm is a human-powered service that solves thousands of captchas a minute, letting bots slip past the anti-abuse walls that onion sites hide behind.