The research

• For an overview of the Onion Plan, check the presentation held at the 2022 Tor Meeting and the originating ticket.

• The Onion Plan repository is hosted at https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/onion-services/onionplan.

Goals

1. Provide a detailed overview of existing proposals and challenges involved in increasing the usability of Onion Services.
2. Discuss possible scenarios and pathways towards the implementation of new and existing proposals.
3. Aid discussion and decision making.

Structure

This research has the following major sections:

1. Proposals: an inventory on all ideas an existing research on enhancement proposals.
2. Scenarios: where some of the enhancement proposals are selected and arranged in development phases inside roadmap scenarios.
3. Appendixes: in-depth discussion of proposals and scenarios.

The overall plan is also split into research tracks that may be worked by distinct, integrated teams:

1. Network Layer: DoS protections, performance improvements etc.
2. Usability: Onion Names, Tor Browser improvements etc.
3. Applications: softwares and libraries for using Onion Services technology.
4. Outreach: documentation, support, usage/adoption campaigns etc.

Fundraising projects can integrate all or some of these items by proposing an Onion Service Enhancement Package.

Terminology

This research relies on specific Terminology about Onion Services