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📝 Page Status: Draft — sourced but not yet reviewed

• Status: draft
• Sources: 2
• Relationships: 3
• Research debt items: 3
• Last verified: 2026-06-19

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Onion Routing

Summary

Onion routing is a technique for anonymous communication over a network in which messages pass through multiple relays in layered encryption.

Verified Facts

• The Tor Project history page states that onion routing research began in the mid-1990s.
• The Tor Project history page states that "Tor" stood for The Onion Routing.
• The Tor design paper describes Tor as a circuit-based low-latency anonymous communication service and second-generation onion routing system.
• ORG-TOR-PROJECT is the OIR seed organization record for the Tor Project.

Historical Context

Historical context has not yet been drafted beyond the summary on the official Tor Project history page and the Tor design paper abstract.

Technical Analysis

Technical analysis has not yet been drafted. Future work should add earlier onion routing research papers and current Tor specification sources.

Relationships

• TOPIC-ONION-ROUTING cites SRC-TOR-PROJECT-HISTORY.
• TOPIC-ONION-ROUTING cites SRC-TOR-DESIGN-PAPER.
• TOPIC-ONION-ROUTING related_to ORG-TOR-PROJECT.

Sources

• SRC-TOR-PROJECT-HISTORY: Tor Project History Page.
• SRC-TOR-DESIGN-PAPER: Tor: The Second-Generation Onion Router.

Research Debt

• Add primary research papers on early onion routing from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.
• Add current Tor specification sources for implementation details.
• Distinguish onion routing as a general technique from Tor-specific implementation details.