Terms, defined plainly

Definitions as this site uses them. Where a term is used loosely elsewhere, the entry says what is meant here.

Addresses and the network

Onion address

A fifty six character string that is a public key written in base32, plus a suffix. It is not a name registered anywhere. It is the key itself.

Base32

The alphabet used for these addresses. The letters a to z and the digits 2 to 7. No 0, no 1, no 8, no 9.

Descriptor

The record a service publishes saying where it can currently be met. Fetching it is the lookup step, and that step can fail on its own.

Introduction point

A relay a service uses as a point of first contact. These change over time, which is the mechanism behind intermittent access.

Rendezvous point

A relay where the two sides of an onion connection agree to meet. Neither side learns where the other is.

Circuit

The chain of relays a connection runs through. Chosen partly at random, disposable by design, and the source of a great deal of misattributed blame.

Relay

A volunteer machine that carries traffic. Nobody can compel one to stay online, and that is deliberate.

Bridge

An entry point that is not publicly listed, used where the ordinary ones are blocked.

Mirror

On this site, simply another published address for the same service. The word carries no ranking and no claim.

Markets and orders

Escrow

An arrangement where payment is held by a third party until a condition is met, with that party able to decide the outcome of a disagreement. Outside it there is no process at all.

Dispute

A formal complaint inside the market, with a window that closes. Missing the window is the most common self inflicted loss in this subject.

Vendor bond

A deposit a seller puts up to trade. An operator setting, not a vendor choice.

Moderation

Decisions by market staff about listings and accounts. Rarely explained, and often mistaken for a vendor disappearing.

Exit

An operator taking held funds and leaving. Distinct from an outage and from a vendor departure, though all three look the same at first.

Batch crediting

A market checking for incoming payments on its own schedule rather than instantly. The second of the two waits after a transfer.

Verification

Key pair

A private half you keep and a public half you give out. The private half signs and the public half checks.

Signature

Proof that the holder of a private key produced an exact piece of text. It says nothing about whether the text is true.

Fingerprint

A short representation of a public key, used to compare two copies of it without reading the whole thing.

Checksum

Characters near the end of an onion address that let software reject a mistyped string before trying to use it.

Terms this site uses in its own way

Attribution

Deciding which party was in a position to make an outcome different. The subject of this whole site.

Actor

One of the five parties a case can be assigned to. You, the market, the vendor, the network, or nobody.

Case

One situation, sorted under one actor, with the usual wrong answer named alongside it.

Judgement

A statement this site is making rather than reporting. Where a page states one, it says so in the sentence.

Words this site avoids

Up, down, online, offline and live are not used about addresses here, because they imply a check that this site does not perform. Verified is not used about an address either, since nothing about an address can be verified by looking at a page that lists it.

• The attribution rule
• What you can actually observe
• The published address list