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Reseach how understandable and useful is the onion metaphor

The onion metaphor is quite ubiquitous at Tor, it's even the "O" in "Tor".

This onion metaphor relates to the multiple layers of encryption of an initial Tor packet.

  • In names

    Onion routing, Onion services, Onion Browser, OnionShare, etc.

  • In logos
    image image image

  • In illustrations
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More recently, we started illustrating the 3 hops in the circuit, instead of the 3 layers of encryption:
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I'm wondering how well the onion metaphor is understood by our target audience and is useful to convey our properties of privacy and security.

My hunch is that it might be better for us to talk more about the multiple hops than about the multiple encryption layers. Even if these 2 aspects are, technically, part of the same encrypted routing scheme, the value of multiple hops might be easier to understand by users and might set us more strongly apart from single hop VPNs, for example.