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Glossary
Defined as used across this site, which is not always how they are used elsewhere.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Onion address | Fifty six characters computed from a public key rather than assigned by anyone. Cannot be seized, and proves nothing about who runs it. |
| Circuit | The path your client builds through relays. A bad one produces failures identical to a service being down, which is why building a new one is always the first thing to try. |
| Fingerprint | A short hash of a public key, comparable by eye. The thing you pin. The key file itself is disposable. |
| Near miss | An address matching the recognisable opening of a real one and differing in the middle. What people mean when they say an address was cloned. |
| Replay | Presenting a genuine old signed statement as current. Signatures never expire, so this works unless you read the date inside the signed text. |
| Escrow | An arrangement where funds move only when two of buyer, vendor and platform sign. The platform key is a tiebreaker, not a veto. |
| Parked balance | Funds held on the platform and not committed to an order, therefore outside escrow and outside every protection. |
| Delivery window | The period after which a dispute becomes appropriate. Filing before it closes is the most common self inflicted mistake. |
| Rate limiting | Slowing or refusing connections based on behaviour, since a hidden service cannot see identity. It looks identical to rejection. |
| The boundary | Where money converts from something with a record into something without one. Where nearly all real exposure comes from, and not on the chain. |
| Clipboard substitution | Software on your own machine replacing an address between the copy and the paste. Checking a signature does not catch it, and reading the ends does. |
| Published set | The list of addresses currently in use. A statement about what is in use, not a statement about what is genuine. |
Terms this site avoids
Dark web, which names no network and describes nothing technical. Deep web, which means content not indexed by search engines and is mostly bank statements and intranets. Both appear in search queries, so they turn up in a page title or two, and neither is used in an explanation because neither is precise enough to build an argument on.