And now: a whirlwind tour of today's notable darknet markets. [thread]
DarkMarket is the first market run by women. They accept Bitcoin and Monero, and run on the Eckmar marketplace script. I normally do not trust Eckmar markets, but this team is trusted by most major vendors. 1400 vendors, 220k users, according to their counts.
Cannazon is a cannabis-only market and has the friendliest user guides I've seen. Will their narrow approach draw less heat? Bitcoin and Monero are accepted. (none of these tweets are endorsements, this is for researchers only)
White House Market is widely seen as the most secure. PGP is required and they only use Monero. There is no hot wallet, withdraws are processed once per day. It's harder to use than Empire was, but many people who take OPSEC seriously vouch for it. 68k active buyers, 1700 vendors
Monopoly Market focuses on quality over quantity. They only allow the most trusted vendors in, 132 are there currently. Snazzy design, friendly tutorials, Bitcoin and Monero are accepted. (thread is for researchers only, tweets are not endorsements)
ToRReZ is a "community driven" market which accepts ZCash, Monero, Bitcoin, and Litecoin. They support multisig transactions, allowing users to avoid centralized market escrow. Multisig remains a difficult UX hurdle for most DNM users. 286 vendors, 13k customers, 200 days online.
CanadaHQ is a small market that launched in 2018 and does not allow shipments to the USA. We'll see if that niche keeps the heat off. Everyone trusts Canadians eh?
Versus Market is still trusted by many darknet users despite a troubled history. They were hacked but chose to be transparent with their users rather than disappearing. Post-hack Versus now mandates multisig for escrow, and allows FE (no escrow).
Tor Market launched in 2018 and accepts ZCash, Bitcoin, and Litecoin. Their user guide is very helpful, and even discusses their server architecture. It feels built by a technical expert. A small user base currently, 254 listings.
DeepSea Market has grown very quickly since launching in 2020. They emphasize that the market is custom and not written in PHP. DeepSea has around 7000 listings, accepts Bitcoin. Support for Monero and ZCash is being worked on.
Asean Market accepts Bitcoin and Monero and is built by an experienced provider of custom shops. Vendors can rent their own shops, powered by the same market code. It launched this year and already has around 4000 listings.
Hydra is the darknet's longest running cryptomarket. Don't speak Russian? You're out of luck. Rather than smuggling product in the mail, Hydra vendors hide their wares in secret caches in Russian cities which buyers pick up. Hydra is working to launch an English version soon.
That concludes our tour of darknet markets for today. This thread is intended for researchers, tweets are not endorsements. Know your local laws before browsing cryptomarkets.
