[tor-dev] Draft of proposal "Direct Onion Services: Fast-but-not-hidden services"

[A. Johnson]

>> 
>> Why not simply "onion service"?
> 
> Because we have already started using "onion service" to cover what we
> previously called "hidden services”

Right.

> My latest thinking about the terminology is that we should call them
> something like "client side onion service" (CSOS, suggested
> pronunciation C-sauce).

These suggestions are too long, in my opinion, and a short acronym cannot substitute for a short name. Of primary importance, I think, is that the name be easy to use and is meaningful. I like the [modifier]+"onion service” approach, which can be further shortened to [modifier]+”service” when the onion context is clear. This already works for “hidden service”, which we can more clearly refer to using “hidden onion service”. Some options following this pattern are
  1. fast onion service
  2. exposed onion service
  3. direct onion service
  4. peeled onion service
  5. bare onion service

I’m beginning to like “exposed onion service”. It makes clear the important property that the service is not hidden, it is easy to use, and it has a usable acronym (EOS or ES).

Aaron