With the AlphaBay marketplace out of commission for the foreseeable future -probably forever- Darknet users will look for new places to do business. Several other markets are trying to take the top spot, although the battle will be long and messy. Below are some of the top marketplaces which can eventually take AlphaBay’s place, should they want to.
4. Silk Road 3.1
There have been many iterations of the infamous Silk Road darknet market over the past few years. All three of these iterations were shut down fairly quickly. Silk Road 3.1 has not been around that long. Its name will certainly attract a lot of people, even though the legitimacy of this platform remains in question. Both Silk Road 2.0 and 3.0 were plagued with scammers and administrators not doing much about it. Whether or not SR 3.1 has the same issues, remains to be seen.
3. CGMC
Even though CGMC mainly focuses on cannabis, the darknet marketplace has built up quite a solid reputation in the darknet world lately. CGMC stands for Cannabis Growers and Merchants Cooperate, which has been around since June of 2016. Similar to some other darknet markets, one cannot just sign up for this platform. It works on an invite-only basis, which often keeps most of the scum away. However, they do have some “open registration” periods every now and then.
2. Dream Market
There are two different darknet markets which can effectively keep up with AlphaBay. They AlphaBay’s competitors prior to its shut down earlier this week. Dream Market has built up a very solid reputation over the years, and they have been around since late 2013. Not all of the reviews about this platform are overly positive. However, there are scammers everywhere on the darknet, and administratorss can only do so much to cull the weed from the chaff.
1. Hansa
Perhaps the one darknet marketplace in the prime position to overtake AlphaBay is Hansa. The darknet marketplace has cemented its legacy in the world of underground business activity. They also use multisignature escrow, something very few other marketplaces have implemented so far. As we have seen with the AlphaBay API bug, there is a growing need for multisig escrow solutions on the darknet.
It does appear people are often trying to sell Hansa accounts to others, which is a bit of a strange tactic. Old accounts with a registration date of 2014 or 2015 will have some “value” to the right people. So far, Hansa seems mostly spared from sellers trying to scam buyers, but some deals will always go awry. Hansa is a solid marketplace with a good reputation, but always do your own research when it comes to sending money to unknown “criminals” on the darknet.
