Is Short Onion URL link possible and how?

[dkbit98]

Does anyone know if it's possible to create short link for long Onion links and what would be the best way to do it?

I want to use this short link for one Bitcoin related services, but I want to keep g00gle related services away from this (if possible).

Post your recommendations below with short review if you used them.

Something like this could be useful in future if Bitcointalk forum ever creates onion domain.

I found one github link but this project was not updated for 7 years  
https://github.com/daknob/ShorTor

PS
Please don't spam or post anything if you are not familiar with onion and short links.

[1714302570]

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[1714302570]

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[_act_]

Onion links are 56 characters.

V2 onion link are deprecated.

V2 onion addresses are fundamentally insecure. If you have a v2 onion, we recommend you migrate now. This is a backward incompatible change

V2 onion links are 16 characters

V3 are 56 characters and they represent the public key and not just the hash represented in V2 which is not secure like V3.

[suchmoon]

If I understand correctly what you're getting at, you could use any URL shortener and it would work as long as the user has Tor browser or some other onion-capable browser. For example:

https://tinyurl.com/duckduckgotest

However it would defeat the purpose of using onion to begin with, because you'd be sending users to clearnet to get the DNS resolution and the redirect. Tor-only shortener is not really feasible due to the reasons _act_ stated above (onion URLs have to be of certain length due to not having a centralized DNS system).

[LoyceV]

https://tinyurl.com/duckduckgotest

I didn't expect Tinyurl to actually support onion links. Not bad!

you'd be sending users to clearnet to get the DNS resolution and the redirect.

So you'd need a separate, decentralized "lookup system" for .onion links. I can imagine this would be something that can be done with a blockchain: all users download all blocks, and once a short name is in there, it can no longer be changed. Then "duckduckgo.onion" would expand to it's full URL, but only if they're the first to claim it.

[ABCbits]

I want to use this short link for one Bitcoin related services, but I want to keep g00gle related services away from this (if possible).

Use robots.txt, although some bot would ignore it.

I found one github link but this project was not updated for 7 years 
https://github.com/daknob/ShorTor

As @suchmoon said, any URL shortener service does the job. So you could either use one of those or self-host your own URL shortener service rather than use this dead project.

[dkbit98]

If I understand correctly what you're getting at, you could use any URL shortener and it would work as long as the user has Tor browser or some other onion-capable browser.

Thanks, I will check out how Tinyurl works.
One potential Tor alternative I found while researching about this topic is i2p, because it supports short links, but question is how many people are using it and I never tried it.
There is no easy way for me to say someone to visit onion website I want, so I guess I could say visit clearnet version and than find onion links in footer.

any URL shortener service does the job. So you could either use one of those or self-host your own URL shortener service rather than use this dead project.

I will think about self-hosting them, if I dont come up with another idea how to share onion links that are easy to remember as text or something like that (QR code images could only work for phones).
If anyone have more ideas I am willing to listen.

[LoyceV]

I will think about self-hosting them, if I dont come up with another idea how to share onion links that are easy to remember as text or something like that (QR code images could only work for phones).
If anyone have more ideas I am willing to listen.

Who is this for? Yourself, or other people? If I use Tor, I wouldn't rely on a third party but just bookmark the link. Anything that makes Onion links easy to remember introduces an attack vector. It's not supposed to be remembered.

[FatFork]

If anyone have more ideas I am willing to listen.

I haven't been keeping up with the Tor scene recently, so I'm not up to date on the latest developments. However, I'm curious about what happened to the "Onion Names" concept that was supposed to be integrated into all newer versions of Tor Browser, if I'm not mistaken. I remember reading about it some time ago, but I'm currently unable to find anything useful except for this article from SecureDrop: https://securedrop.org/news/introducing-onion-names-securedrop/

It might be worth exploring.

You might also consider getting creative and mapping ENS domains to .onion addresses: https://medium.com/@brantly.eth/ens-now-supports-tor-onion-address-resolution-9bb3bdff6217
Although I have a feeling that might be a bit too daring for your taste. 

[LoyceV]

SecureDrop: https://securedrop.org/news/introducing-onion-names-securedrop/

It sounded promising, until I checked their website:

I just can't take them serious this way.

[FatFork]

SecureDrop: https://securedrop.org/news/introducing-onion-names-securedrop/

It sounded promising, until I checked their website:
<cut>
I just can't take them serious this way.

Haha, you're right! Seems like they aimed for that message to pop up solely on the "clernet" domain, but somewhere along the line, the dev had a little slip-up.

But that doesn't matter. I don't think "Onion Names" is related to SecureDrop directly. They're simply using that feature for their own services, and I stumbled upon their article that explains it. As an example, you can access their SecureDrop instance for CNN at either qmifwf762qftydprw2adbg7hs2mkunac5xrz3cb5busaflji3rja5lid.onion or cnn.securedrop.tor.onion addresses. This means that the Tor browser is somehow capable of translating the "<name>.securedrop.tor.onion" URL into the correct real .onion domain. I'm guessing that's the part that dkbit98 is interested in.

[suchmoon]

But that doesn't matter. I don't think "Onion Names" is related to SecureDrop directly. They're simply using that feature for their own services, and I stumbled upon their article that explains it. As an example, you can access their SecureDrop instance for CNN at either qmifwf762qftydprw2adbg7hs2mkunac5xrz3cb5busaflji3rja5lid.onion or cnn.securedrop.tor.onion addresses. This means that the Tor browser is somehow capable of translating the "<name>.securedrop.tor.onion" URL into the correct real .onion domain. I'm guessing that's the part that dkbit98 is interested in.

This looks very sketchy TBH... the original announcement said it works through HTTPS Everywhere extension but newest Tor Browser versions don't have that extension anymore so it seems to be hardcoded and not able to turn it off on user side. Not sure how to configure a new URL from the service side either.

[dkbit98]

Who is this for? Yourself, or other people? If I use Tor, I wouldn't rely on a third party but just bookmark the link. Anything that makes Onion links easy to remember introduces an attack vector. It's not supposed to be remembered.

No, it's for sharing with other people like I said.
I am already bookmarking all websites I use all the time, this also protects me from potential phishing scam fake websites.

Just like Bitcoin address, i don't expect there are ways to make onion link become easy to remember without involving third party. QR code works fine on computer/laptop, but user need to take few extra steps depending on which application they use. The only remaining idea i have is showing image which has both QR code and onion link.

Problem with QR codes is they are not always compatible when generated with different programs.
I remember I tried to share one Bitcoin address from one app and it was not working because second app was not registering this custom QR code.

I haven't been keeping up with the Tor scene recently, so I'm not up to date on the latest developments. However, I'm curious about what happened to the "Onion Names" concept that was supposed to be integrated into all newer versions of Tor Browser, if I'm not mistaken. I remember reading about it some time ago, but I'm currently unable to find anything useful except for this article from SecureDrop: https://securedrop.org/news/introducing-onion-names-securedrop/

I never heard about this this, but they claim this is open source system, so I might do deeper investigation.

You might also consider getting creative and mapping ENS domains to .onion addresses: https://medium.com/@brantly.eth/ens-now-supports-tor-onion-address-resolution-9bb3bdff6217
Although I have a feeling that might be a bit too daring for your taste.  

Good idea.
Is this based on ethereum network?
Maybe there is some alternative that works on bitcoin blockchain or on second layer solution for bitcoin,

[decodx]

You might also consider getting creative and mapping ENS domains to .onion addresses: https://medium.com/@brantly.eth/ens-now-supports-tor-onion-address-resolution-9bb3bdff6217
Although I have a feeling that might be a bit too daring for your taste. 

Good idea.
Is this based on ethereum network?
Maybe there is some alternative that works on bitcoin blockchain or on second layer solution for bitcoin,

There are several attempt such as BitDNS, BitAlias and Namecoin. But all of them either dead or has very little adaption.

These are the most popular blockchain-based domains, as far as I know:
.eth is, of course, based on the Ethereum blockchain
.bit and .tor are based on the Namecoin blockchain
.coin, .lib, .bazar and .emc are based on the Emercoin blockchain

[dkbit98]

When you say custom QR code, do you mean customization such as images in middle or colorful QR code? If so, just generate plain QR code.

You can't choose the type of QR codes with wallets and services I was talking about, there is no universal qr code standard that is the same for all wallets.
Same goes for certain hardware wallets like Safepal that uses closed source for generating qr codes, and this is not compatible with all wallets.
I read somewhere there is more than 40 different types of qr codes 

These are the most popular blockchain-based domains, as far as I know

I think there is something called Stacks that used smart contract on Bitcoin network.
Maybe this is the best option for this kind of domains:
https://www.stacks.co/

[robelneo]

Does anyone know if it's possible to create short link for long Onion links and what would be the best way to do it?

I want to use this short link for one Bitcoin related services, but I want to keep g00gle related services away from this (if possible).

If it's your own service or you are affiliated with that service better buy a domain that sounds or the name is similar to what you're promoting then create a redirect from the domain you purchase to that onion link, you have full control of the link where you post it, in case you part ways or you stop promoting that service you can just redirect it to another site.
Url shortener sometimes gets flagged or they take it down if you have even a small violation.