Security & Privacy

The Onion Router was designed from the ground up for zero-trust environments, where no single party can see or control the full transaction lifecycle. This chapter outlines how TOR defends against both technical threats and surveillance vectors.

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🔐 Core Privacy Model

TOR uses a blend of:

• Onion Routing: Multi-hop encryption masks the origin and destination.

• ZK-SNARKs: Zero-knowledge proofs confirm transaction validity without revealing data.

• Split Knowledge: No single node sees both sender and receiver — ever.

This is privacy by architecture, not just obfuscation.

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🧩 How TOR Ensures Privacy

Layer	What It Protects	Tech Used
Network Layer	IP, geo, routing metadata	Onion-routing relays
Transaction Layer	Amounts, addresses, origin	ZK-SNARKs, stealth encoding
Execution Layer	Cross-chain token movements	Shielded bridge contracts

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💥 Threat Model & Attack Vectors

Threat	Traditional Bridge	TOR Bridge Defense
Key Compromise	Multisigs exploitable	No centralized key management
Transaction Linking	On-chain metadata	Encrypted multi-hop routing
Replay Attacks	Stateless bridges	Nonce-based proof verification
MEV / Frontrunning	Public mempool exposure	Off-chain payloads, stealth TXs
Sybil Airdrop Farming	No defense	Behavior filters

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🧪 Auditing & Verifiability

• Open-source contracts with formal verification

• ZK-proofs can be verified publicly without revealing private data

• Circuit logic (e.g., identity masking, amount verification) published for public review

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✅ Security Philosophy

No trust, no leaks, no middlemen. TOR assumes everything is hostile — and makes that your strength.