What is up with these longer onion addresses?

1. Why are onion addresses so long?
2. How long are onion addresses?
3. How do onion addresses work?
4. What does onion mean on the Internet?

Why are onion addresses so long?

The address is so long because it is the public key, not just the hash like it is with standard V2 Onion Addresses.

How long are onion addresses?

Addresses in the onion TLD are generally opaque, non-mnemonic, alpha-numerical strings which are automatically generated based on a public key when an onion service is configured. They are 16 characters long for V2 onion services and 56 characters long for V3 onion services.

How do onion addresses work?

onion" addresses are URLs that are not listed in the public DNS record like those on the surface web. They are cryptographic hashes based on public keys. Whenever you want to connect to an onion service, the Tor network takes the cryptographic hash, decrypts it using the public key, and connects to the service.

What does onion mean on the Internet?

Onion sites are websites on the dark web that use the “.onion” top-level domain instead of “.com,” “.net,” “.gov,” etc. Onion sites use The Onion Router (Tor) software to encrypt their connections and enable anonymous communication. They also hide their location, ownership, and other identifiers.