Tor Project Auctions Off The First Onion URL Ever Created As An NFT

The Tor Project is auctioning off the first Tor Onion domain ever created, duskgytldkxiuqc6.onion, as an NFT.

The non-profit Tor Project operates the Tor decentralized network running on top of the Internet that allows users to access websites anonymously and special Onion URLs (.onion) only accessible over Tor.

Commonly referred to as the dark web, Tor allows website developers to create special onion services that are only accessible via the Tor network and provide anonymity to the service owner.

The first onion service ever created by the Tor project is Dusk at http://duskgytldkxiuqc6.onion, which is commonly used as an example Onion service in Tor-related documentation and help files.

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As a fund-raiser, Tor is auctioning off the RSA1024 cryptographic private key used to create Dusk along with one-of-a-kind NFT art piece named “Dreaming at Dusk” created from the key by Itzel Yard (@ixshells).

Tor’s auction is happening on the foundation.app, the platform Edward Snowden recently auctioned an NFT for 2,224.00 ETH (~$7 million USD).

The winning bidder will receive the key on November 1st, 2021, and the Tor Project says it can be delivered however “The Owners” wish.

“Hereinafter, the owner(s) of the ‘Dreaming at Dusk’ NFT on November 1st 2021 00:00UTC shall be called ‘The Owners’. The Owners shall receive the RSA1024 private key of this onion service. The private key shall be sent to The Owners in any way preferable to them — let that be an encrypted message over their protocol of choice, uploaded on a blockchain, or physically shipped in a USB stick or DVD drive.”

“Following the receipt of the private key by them, the private key belongs to The Owners and may be used in whatever way The Owners find suitable. The Owners may contact us at dusk[at]torproject.org. The Owners may refuse to accept the private key if they so want,” the Disk Tor service currently reads.

Readers should note that the auction winner will receive the private key for Dusk after Tor has finished migrating the Tor onion services from version 2 to version 3.

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This deprecation means that the winner cannot use the Dusk private key to host the Onion service, and the key will simply be an artifact of Tor’s history.