[tor-talk] Let's make Onion Addresses Meaningful To Humans

[Jeremy Rand]

Sounds like an interesting idea.  Another potential solution is 
Namecoin, which supports mapping memorable .bit addresses to .onion 
addresses.  In theory, the only way to seize/censor a .bit address is a 
51% attack.  I believe there are already some .onion addresses using 
.bit addresses.

On 2/24/2012 4:36 AM, Ahmed Hassan wrote:
> Hello Folks,
>
> I have a cool idea to make onion addresses memorable. That will have no
> effect on its authenticity and security.
>
>
> First, I need to define some terms I will use in this email.
>
> Σ*_{e}: is any English (or any other language) word.
>
> D*: is a set of all English words (or any other language again) in
> dictionary.
>
> D*_{N}: N means the location of element Σ* in D*.
>
> For example, if D* = { 'cat', 'hat' ,'rat' }.
> D*_{0} returns 'cat', and D*_{'cat'} returns 0
>
> max(D*): is a total number of words in a dictionary D*.
>
> I hope you didn't get confused at this point.
>
>
> Onion address needs to be converted to decimal instead of base 32 to
> make it easier to implement.
>
> Let's say I have already have a value of onion address converted to a
> decimal. That number is 2025107508922.
>
> I will take that number and convert it to number in base max(D*).
>
> If we have 51236 words in English dictionary, the result of that
> conversion will be only 3 digits numbers. The numbers after conversion
> are the following:
>
> 771-22133-48918
>
> Here is a wolframalpha conversion link
> http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2025107508922++convert+to+base
> +51236
>
> I used dash "-" instead of colons ":" to separate the converted digits.
> It's easier to make it work with the URL (URL uses colon to separate
> address from port) , and easier to convert to the original value.
>
>
> We will take 711, 22133 and 48918 and return the Σ*_{e} from D*. Where
> Σ*_{e} is an English word, and D* is a dictionary.
>
> So, D*_{771}: returns Σ*_{e}', and D*_{22133}: returns different
> Σ*_{e}'' and so on.
>
> At the end we will have something like that:
>
> Σ*_{e}'  -  Σ*_{e}''  -  Σ*_{e}^(3).onion
>
> If Σ*_{e}' is equal to 'cat',  Σ*_{e}'' ( '' means another word) is
> equal to 'rat' and  Σ*_{e}^(3) is equal to 'hat'. The final result will
> be something like this
>
> cat-rat-hat.onion.
>
>
> To convert back again to the original SHA hash value, all we have to do
> is to return a number from D*_{Σ*_{e}} for each word, and convert it
> back again to the original base.
>
>
> Users will not have an option to explicitly choose onion domain name,
> but they will have an option to generate a lot of keys, and choose
> something they like.
>
>