Comparison of darknet markets

Template:Proofread A darknet market is a website operating in a darknet (i.e. Freenet, I2P, TOR) and in which goods and services (usually drugs) are traded. The legal status of the traded goods depends varies from country to country. The purpose of this comparison is to keep an overview about the constantly changing phenomenon of darknet markets. The comparison in durability, success and security shall enable people to evaluate markets and make independent decisions before using them.

According to their major features and design three generations of marketplaces can be distinguished.

1. Central Escrow Markets. The original "Silkroad" was the first of this kind. Buyers and vendors have their bitcoins on an online wallet which is controlled by the markets admin and therefore rely totally on the good will of the markets admins. Several big scams happened in the past in which millions of $ were stolen.
2. Multi-Signature Markets. In this markets funds will be deposited in a multi-signature wallet. At three least three parties (usually:buyer, vendor, market admin) have the control over these wallets. Two of them have to agree to release the funds. The most elaborated marketplace of this kind was "The Marketplace". Second generation marketplace could not get some serious market share yet.
3. Decentralized marketplaces. There are some projects which are currently developing software to host drug marketplaces in a distributed manner. None of these projects reached a final state.

All markets are hosted either as Tor Hidden Services (Onion Sites), i2p sites (eepsites) or another kind of p2p or darknet. Therefor they can not be accessed with a normal webrowser. The technical aspects of using a darknet market are discussed in the article Darknet marketplace usage tutorial.

Centralized Markets

All these markets have a certain concept in common. There is a staff team which is maintaining a website as an onion or eepsite in TOR or I2P. They offer all the features to vendors and buyers. They take some % of every transaction as commission for their own profit and often take a bond of vendors to prevent scammers off signin up.

Name, Adress, Forum, Subreddit	Date of Opening	No. of Listings	Registration	2-Factor-Authentification	Escrow System	Java Script, use of	PGP enforced	Security Incidents	Wallet Clearing
Abraxas (http://abraxasdegupusel.onion/) Forum (http://abraxasgacelesox.onion/) Subreddit (/r/AbraxasMarket)	2014-12-13	~350	Invite Only	No	finalize early, central	No	No	No	No
Agora (http://agorahooawayyfoe.onion/) Forum (http://lacbzxobeprssrfx.onion) Subreddit (/r/AgMarketplace)	2013-12-05	+14000	Invite Only	Yes	finalize early, central	No	No	No	No
Majestic Garden (http://themgpeuawtfvbzi.onion/) Forum (http://bm26rwk32m7u7rec.onion/) Subreddit -	?	TMG is a forum to review and contact vendors who are considered to be very reliable.	Open	No	-	No	No	No	-
Middle Earth (http://mango7u3rivtwxy7.onion/) Forum (http://mango7u3rivtwxy7.onion/talks/) Subreddit -	2014-06-22	~1000	Open	Yes	finalize early, central	optional	No	No	No
Nucleus Market http://nucleuspf3izq7o6.onion/ Forum http://z34uj4opd3tejafn.onion/ Subreddit /r/NucleusMarket	2014-10-24	~2500	Open	Yes	finalize early, central	No	No	No	?
Outlaw Market (http://outfor6jwcztwbpd.onion/) Forum http://outforumbpapnpqr.onion Subreddit -	2014-02-04	~500	Open	Yes	finalize early, central	No	?	yes	?
Silkroad Reloaded http://silkroadreloaded.i2p/ Forum http://silkroadreloaded.i2p/pyforum2/default/index Subreddit /r/SilkRoadReLoaded	2014-01-06	~19	Open	Yes (mandatory)	finalize early, central	yes	No	No	No
The Free Market http://tfmarket6iaddx45.onion/ Forum - Subreddit -	2015-01-14	~20	No Account needed	No	finalize early, central	No	No	No	No

Explanations:

Criterion	Explanation
Marketplace	The name of the marketplace.
2-Factor-Authentification	With 2-factor authentification you need to decrypt a with your private PGP key. This feature avoids successful phishing of your name and password.
Escrow System	Escrow should ensure neither buyers nor vendors scam each other. No escrow increases the probability vendors or customers scam each other. On-site wallets decreases this risk but unfortunately were abused in the past to steal bitcoins from users by hackers or admins (Atlantis, Project Blag Flag, Sheep, Silkroad 2.0). With Multi-Signature-Wallets 2 of 3 people (Market Admin, Vendor, Customer) must agree to the release of the money in escrow.
Java Script, use of	Many people consider Javascript as a securtiy risk. Some sites force you to turn it off before entering their site.
PGP (enforced)	Is the use of PGP obligatory in private messages? Writing unencrypted messages endangers you and other people.
Security Incidents	Bitcoins disappeared? Team members busted? Page hacked?
Wallet Clearing (after finished Escrow)	Will your on site wallet be cleared if all transactions are finalized? With Multi-Signature Wallets a unique address is created for every transaction. Only the exact amount if money is required.

Minor Markets

(need to be integrated into chart or moved to dead marketplaces)

• Dream Market: http://ltxocqh4nvwkofil.onion
• East India Company
• French Market Place: [fmp75d2wcfom3opr.onion) French
• RAMP: http://ramp2bombkadwvgz.onion

Multi-Signature-Markets

• AlphaBay (pwoah7foa6au2pul.onion)
• Haven
• MrNiceGuy
• Oxygen
• Silkkitien: [silkkitiehdg5mug.onion] (Finnish, English)
• TheRealDeal

Decentralized Markets

Decentralized markets are software which run distributed by a P2P filesharing-like software. A middlemen who is taking it’s cut is not needed anymore. The following table lists software projects which are in the development right now. Unless a prpjects reached the "stable" development status all feature had only be read as "announced" or "planed".

Name, Website, Sourcecode	development status	hosting	anonymizing routing	cryptocurrencies	encrypted messaging	build-in wallet	anonymous transaction
Openmarket (?) (https://github.com/openmarket/openmarket)	beta	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Open Bazaar (https://openbazaar.org/) (https://github.com/OpenBazaar/OpenBazaar)	beta	P2P	?	Bitcoin	yes (GnuPG)	?	?	?
Shadow Market (http://aboutshadow.com/) (https://github.com/SDCDev/shadowcoin)	pre-alpha	P2P combined with PoS rewards in Shadowcash	Through I2P and TOR	Shadowcash	yes	yes	yes

Further Reading

General

• A dictionary of often used terms about the darknet.
• Subreddit for all Darknet Markets
• "Grams" - Darknet Market search engine, Bitcoin mixer, Vendor directory
• The Hub - General darknet market forum
• "The Kingdom Forums" - General darknet market forum

Lists of darknet markets

• List and Comparison chart of hidden Marketplaces TOR/I2P @ Deep Dot Web
• Comparison of current and dead darknet markets made by gwern.net
• Comparison of darknet markets by dnstats.net
• Darknet market "Superlist" on /r/DarkNetMarkets
• Wall of Shame List of markets to avoid on reddit.com/r/darknetmarkets

Vendor directories and reviews

• "All Markets Vendor Directory" - A Directory for Darknet Vendors
• "The Darknet Feedback Database" - Search by pgp key and known username. Includes the feedback database of the now offline BlackMarketReloaded.
• "Grams" - Darknet Market search engine, Bitcoin mixer, Vendor directory