So can we finally get rid of this notion that certain marketplaces are more trustworthy than others?

I remember once seeing a post on here where someone asked which market to use and someone replied with something along the lines of

Dude. Fuck Alphabay. That shit is run by Russian carders and can't be trusted. I use Nucleus. It's totally trustworthy and is much less likely to exit scam than Alphabay.

I was a bit flabesgasted but too high to argue and respond. Now, understand not trusting Alphabay for the carders reason, but trusting Nucleus instead? Have some of us forgotten that these are illegal, anonymously ran markets? Why would anyone think ANY market can truly be trusted?

I mean, I get that some admins are more active, friendly, personable, responsive than others, and that can make one seem more trustworthy, but if politics, business, and salesmanship teach anything, its that it is much more profitable to have (or even fake) these qualities.

Suffice to say, buyers should just consider markets a dime a dozen. Simply a place that makes buying online a little easier and safer (scam wise) than before. But we're still doing illegal shit and relying mostly on other people's ethics to keep from getting screwed over. Only send money when you're ready to order, and buy from vendors with quick turnaround. And as for vendors, maybe start making a push for multisig in markets. I really hate that you guys get screwed the most out of all this.

And to the vendor I ordered from before Nuc went down, I got the reship, and I'll still check Nuc everyday to release your coins just in case we get lucky.


Comments


[41 Points] MDMangel:

I bet you a bitcoin that my market could beat up your market.


[14 Points] DirtyHippy69:

sure, if the only worry about a market was exit scams it wouldn't matter. But there are other factors like Alphabay's "top notch" support.


[12 Points] None:

Multisig?


[7 Points] _-________________-_:

"Calling /u/agora_voice, /u/agora_voice, come in... we need you now more than ever..." 😢


[4 Points] None:

My dads cock is bigger than your dad's.


[2 Points] ruzdnmthrowaway:

Anyone with a modicum of common sense is well aware that no market is any more worthy of one's trust than any other. The black market is the black market, regardless of how it's packaged for consumption, it's still operating outside the laws of any nation state and is therefore liable to vanish into thin air for no particular reason and take everyone's money & hard work along with it. That's a risk, for now, that everyone must acknowledge. Humans can get really shitty when money is involved.


[3 Points] PsychonautNL:

I understand what you mean, just a friendly warning, TheRealDeal is a straight copy of Evolution, if you wish to get robbed, please register and buy at therealdeal...


[3 Points] identiifiication:

I was a bit flabesgasted but too high to argue and respond.

The beauty of Ganja


[3 Points] fuckthisshit33322:

Called it before, Alphabay is run by russians and they have more leeway with the government there. Obviously when the fear of getting caught is less pronounced you will have a longer time horizon before scamming. All the people are moving towards them because they have been working the longest. Definitely planned.


[4 Points] Vendor_BBMC:

No, we can't get rid of that notion, because the trustworthiness of the person in charge of the market is the most important factor. Its a social engineering problem, not software engineering.

Forget multisig escrows, there is no software solution to theft (not when the thief is supposed to code escrows that will foil his own attempts to steal them)

The problem is our ability to ascertain his trustworthiness. I ask them to promise they will never steal from BBMC.

It doesn't cost anything, only takes a second, and anybody who breaks a promise is fair game.

This may be the end of Nucleus, but I don't think its an exit scam. The bitcoin hasn't been stolen.

https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/NucleusMarket

I think it's a technical issue / hosting, the owner has been arrested, or the owner has had to run for it.

Lets hope its a technical issue, or an exit scam - at least the server with all your guilty secrets will be looked after safely. My personal policy is - if a site works normally, then stops - let them go. They have a one-day snapshot of bitcoin on the site, and I think of it as their pension, and payment to archive that box of guilt, file it away in the ocean depths.

If they fuck about with the wallets, allowing deposits but preventing withdrawals, they deserve to be chased through hell, spend the rest of their lives waiting for a knock at the door, and get busted.

At the moment, its just a site down. Agora used to be down twice as long without a word, so trust IS a factor. Nobody trusts alphabay, I gthink they planned to exit in November, but walletexplorer knowing all their wallets terrified them.

Its getting better and better, markets are lasting longer then just switching off, because its too dangerous to "do a sheepmarket". The odfds are stacked more and more against them getting away with it.

I already found nucleus' owner's personal offsite wallet, so if it turns out to be theft he will get arrested. I think he had to flee, or he's been busted, personally. he could have had a stroke - anything. Wednesday is the classical exit scam day, but that's about the only indicator.


[2 Points] IntergalacticU:

Most cannot be trusted with millions at their fingertips.


[2 Points] MrGangGreen:

I trusted nuclues over other markets because they weren't afraid to wave the ban hammer. While topgear was banned he was still running on alpha. Other big vendors (bringing in huge coin for nucleus) weren't immune to being banned eg youngfamily and others I can't remember at the moment. So what you have 1000+ deals, at the first sign of scamming nucleus was investigating shit subsequentially banning them while other markets (agora included) were letting them run free. Obviously there's no such thing as trust in this game but banning big vendors was a huge deal to me, especially when these vendors are bringing nucleus huge coin.


[2 Points] SlaterK:

Just tried to go on to Nucleus and i got a blank header box think its a DDoS guys!


[2 Points] 099K:

I bet Dream is next.


[1 Points] blackhand25:

It's easy to forget that we're all criminals. Don't get me wrong, many admins and vendors are honorable; but getting hacked or running into serious money troubles can do crazy things to people. Not to mention the fact that money is a surefire way to corrupt most people, and for someone to look down one day and suddenly realize they've got access to a few million dollars that they can take from people who (they think) will never manage to find them, and running off with it will help get the feds to stop searching for them. It can be overwhelming for someone who wasn't eased into it, and I think that every market admin who has been identified has shown that virtually no admins have "eased" into this amount of money and responsibility, so they eventually see an easy out.

If you aren't careful, morality is an easy thing to lose, and once they are gone you can find yourself making decisions you never would have made when you started. I'd venture to guess that half of market disappearances are caused by hacks that result in the admins being unable to cover the losses so they just walk away, and the other half is admins taking the coins and running.


[1 Points] GrandWizardsLair:

A market admin who gets extradited to America is looking at serious jail time. All the big markets, and most of the little ones, have American vendors and buyers. Given that, the Grand Wizard assumes that admins will err on the side of caution when it comes to security. At the first sign LE may be on to them they are going to destroy evidence, pull up stakes and move on. And so from that perspective every market is one spooked administrator away from disappearing.


[1 Points] None:

Nucleus looked like Evolution #2 since day one. However Evolution had good functionality with an easy to use interface.

For all intensive purposes I'm not interested if a market will exit scam. This is the darknet, where people hide behind anonymity. You should treat it like every market will exit scam. And both Nucleus and Alphabay seemed likely exit scammers from day one, so of them, most of us who are not carders, just humble druggies. We were looking for the site with all the best vendors in one place, which was Nucleus. Hence why Nucleus had nearly 5000btc in their wallet at one point when Alphabay only had a couple of hundred.

For how long Nucleus lasted, and the one order I'm not sure if will turn up, it was worth using them over Alphabay for how much easier the site was to navigate alone. Also the support were quick to handle any problems and act on scammers.

There is not actually any proof they have exit scammed yet. The coins are still there aren't they? Bare in mind these guys have LE forces around the worlds joint efforts looking at them 24 hours a day.


[1 Points] GenericName121:

A more active, friendly, personable, and responsive person, is just a person who has a better setup for an exit scam.


[1 Points] TreyWait:

When I was shopping for a home site I visited them all. The reason I rejected Nuc was two reasons: 1. The site coding and layout seemed lazy, and 2. Their forum was down. I kept checking back, but it was never active. How much time and effort does it take to maintain a forum? It felt like Nuc only had a couple of admins and that they weren't spending much time on it. It felt cheap...


[1 Points] droppingwhen:

I miss agora very bad. Like right now we have these shitty c-rated markets. None of them are even close to what we had before. We really are in the darkages of the darknet. Ready for it to end, maybe it'll end when big boy agora comes back (which I heavily doubt it'll ever come back). That's the knight in shining armor we all need. They would be our heroes.


[1 Points] DrunkinProphet:

Shit, just deposited some money there because I had to open a new account. Also made a an order shortly before it was closed, which was confirmed but probably still didn't go through.

I don't care about the money, it's more of hassle to find another marketplace and good vendors. Dreammarket looks okayish, so does alphabay. Now I just have to find my trusted vendors.


[0 Points] TripAddict:

[deleted]


[0 Points] None:

[deleted]


[-1 Points] Stoned3y3Codon3:

Little early to be saying this eh ? We dont even kno if they scammed more then likely seeing as its following same pattern but guess we have to wait till coins move.