How to create a .onion address

v2 names were 16 characters. v3 names are 56 characters. A generator can give you a more readable prefix; it is optional. Tor already creates a usable hostname when you enable the hidden service.

Version	Example
v2 (retired)	`yyhws9optuwiwsns.onion`
v3	`hello23twa7k536qggxfeqm4orwohwlca3ln6f43b4splcym57msaxid.onion`

Specification background: v3 onion services replaced the older v2 design.

You can skip this guide Generating a vanity name is not required. Use the default hostname from /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/hostname if you do not need a custom prefix.

Linux VM for mkp224o

mkp224o builds vanity ed25519 onion addresses. At the time these notes were written, that workflow was Linux-only.

Install Hyper-V on Windows 10 (free).

Enable Hyper-V on Windows
Download an Ubuntu desktop ISO. The original guide used 19.10; use a current LTS ISO instead.

Ubuntu desktop downloads
Install Ubuntu in Hyper-V.

Run Linux in Hyper-V on Windows 10

Build mkp224o

Download mkp224o from GitHub.

mkp224o master.zip
Extract the archive in Ubuntu (GUI or terminal).
```
unzip mkp224o-master.zip
```
Generate the configure script.
```
./autogen.sh
```

Configure before compiling.

./configure --enable-amd64-51-30k --enable-intfilter --enable-binsearch --enable-besort

Build the binary.
```
make
```

Generate addresses

A useful prefix can take hours or weeks. Each match is stored as a folder named after the .onion address, with the public and private keys inside. The keys are binary; do not expect to open them in a text editor.

./mkp224o <beginning text> -B -S 5 -j 16 -d keys

-B Batch: generate many candidates
-S Print statistics every N seconds (here, 5)
-j CPU threads
-d Directory for generated keys

Example:

./mkp224o website -B -S 5 -j 16 -d websitekeys

Ubuntu terminal running mkp224o and printing generation statistics — mkp224o reporting hashrate while searching for a “website” prefix.