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.
🔐 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.
🧩 How TOR Ensures Privacy
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
💥 Threat Model & Attack Vectors
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
🧪 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
✅ Security Philosophy
No trust, no leaks, no middlemen. TOR assumes everything is hostile — and makes that your strength.
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