> A natural question is how this differs from something like Tor. In a nutshell, Tor offers identity protection before you enter a P2P network, and Dandelion offers identity protection inside the P2P network.
The explanation for why Tor is different makes no sense. Instead of using a highly audited, 20 year proven, research backed protocol, let's invent something else? NIH syndrome
My understanding is that TOR also provides the latter - as that is specifically the purpose of the "onion" routing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_routing
I had the impression that onion services are exactly that: protection inside the P2P network.
The linked paper itself seems to make no such claim and actually references it for its similarity!