How to verify an .onion address properly before you trust it
An onion address is not a name - it is a public key. One wrong character puts you on a stranger's server. Here is how researchers and operators say to verify it.
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205 postsshort notes about this list, the tor network and not getting phished. no newsletter, no comments, no rss bloat - it updates when it updates.
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newest firstGone without a word: a long-running market goes silent
No farewell post, no mirror notice, no seizure banner. One of the older names on our list simply stopped answering, and silence is its own kind of announcement.
Arti gains ground: why the Rust rewrite of Tor matters more than ever
The Rust rewrite of the tor client has reached client feature parity. What memory safety buys, how the transition is tracking and why relays will be the last to move.
A veteran market plans its own funeral: why orderly exits are so rare
A long-running darknet market has posted a shutdown schedule instead of vanishing overnight. Orderly exits are rare enough to make news, but history says watch the payouts.
Operation Bayonet: The Month Police Secretly Ran Hansa Market
Dutch police seized Hansa Market in June 2017 and quietly ran it for weeks, harvesting user data as AlphaBay refugees walked straight into the trap.
Anatomy of the AlphaBay Takedown: How a Hotmail Address Unmasked the Dark Web's Biggest Kingpin
AlphaBay fell in July 2017 not to a flaw in Tor but to human error: a personal Hotmail in welcome emails, a LinkedIn profile, and a dropped VPN session.
The Hydra Collapse: How One Raid Broke the Russian Dark Web
German police seized Hydra Market in April 2022, confiscating roughly $25 million in bitcoin. The raid shattered the Russian-language dark web into a long, messy war for its throne.
How small opsec mistakes unmasked the Wall Street Market admins
A failing VPN, correlated login times and a recycled PGP key identified the Wall Street Market admins, while their exit scam collapsed into user extortion.
Empire Market's $30 Million Vanishing Act: The DDoS Cover Story, Decoded
The biggest English-language darknet market vanished in August 2020 behind a DDoS cover story. Roughly $30 million went with it, and the signs were visible for days.
The Evolution Exit Scam: How $12 Million Vanished and Wrote the Playbook
In March 2015 Evolution's admins vanished with about $12 million in escrowed bitcoin. The collapse became the template every exit scam since has copied.
Silk Road, Thirteen Years Later: What the 2013 Takedown Still Teaches
Thirteen years after FBI agents grabbed Ross Ulbricht in a library, the Silk Road case remains the sharpest lesson in operational security, chain analysis and legend building.
Operation Cookie Monster: How the FBI Dismantled Genesis Market
Genesis Market sold stolen digital identities as ready-to-use bots. Operation Cookie Monster seized it in April 2023, arresting users across 17 countries within days.