Darknet marketplaces are making some big changes behind the scenes. With some of the major trading hubs having been shut down by law enforcement agencies last year, there is a growing need for privacy and anonymity. This also means payment solutions such as Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are no longer sufficient. Dream Market, currently the top darknet marketplace, is completing its integration of Monero. Vendors are being asked to set their preference to use Monero or not. It’s a big step forward for all parties involved.

Monero is Coming to Dream Market Soon

Most darknet marketplace operators tend to announce major developments well in advance. Even though they don’t want to hype their own platforms too much, it is evident the competition in this industry is not to be trifled with. Whenever one big darknet marketplace disappears or gets taken offline, three or four contenders will step in to take its place. A lot of money passes through these underground marketplaces, and most of the payments are still made in Bitcoin.

That is coming to change in the very near future. Not too long ago, we noticed that some darknet marketplaces were leaning toward integrating Bitcoin Cash. Although it’s no more (or less) private and anonymous than Bitcoin, it offers lower transaction fees and faster payment confirmations. Bitcoin is not the peer-to-peer currency everyone wants it to be, and darknet vendors are getting fed up with paying high fees and waiting hours for payments to be confirmed. Bitcoin Cash seems to be filling this void, but it’s still lacking in terms of privacy and anonymity.

When it comes to finding a fungible cryptocurrency which is also both private and anonymous, there is only one real contender to speak of right now. Even though a lot of altcoins claim to focus on privacy, most of them seemingly implement it in an optional manner. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but when it comes to hiding transaction amounts, senders, and recipients, Monero clearly has the better cards right now. It’s a project many people tend to overlook because it is not as convenient for novice enthusiasts to use as some others. At the same time, powerful technology is always rather unwieldy during the first few years.

In fact, Bitcoin wasn’t embraced by the darknet either until it became more convenient to use. Monero is going down a very similar path, with the added bonus of being a fungible cryptocurrency. Moreover, it has privacy and anonymity features built in at the protocol level, even though users can still make every aspect of their transactions public if they prefer to do so. Giving users the option to be transparent is better than giving them an option to obtain more privacy. In this day and age, privacy should be the default approach setting, rather than the exception.

As a result of this careful approach to anonymity and privacy, darknet markets are now starting to pay attention to this alternative currency. In fact, Dream Market is preparing to integrate Monero payments in the very near future. Vendors who access the platform will receive a notification asking them to accept XMR payments for future orders. It is unclear when the integration will be fully complete, but it seems to be merely a matter of days until that happens.

Consequently, users of Dream Market will soon have three payment options at their disposal. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash will still be supported, even though they are clearly not cut out for darknet payments. Monero, on the other hand, seems to be suited for anyone in the world – regardless of their intentions or offerings – to accept and complete payments in a private manner. For darknet users, this may be the fungible anonymous payment method they have been waiting for. For everyone else, Monero is the closest one can get to fungible financial privacy as of right now.

Whether or not other darknet markets will also integrate Monero remains to be seen. Some Reddit users feel that any darknet market not using Monero doesn’t care about customer security or privacy, which is a very strong statement. An interesting paradigm shift is taking place across the darknet; that much is rather evident.