Mars Market addresses
Three published addresses for the same market. Copy rather than retype, and check the signature once you are through.
marsautkudspgk6j23cxdtrk36ae4fpis2eoe7izu5y2rsksvmfji2ad.onion
marshjhtog245vzjzcicnmv2ci6yljibvdm4pngq5kmkfvcutppboxad.onion
marsiujka6lrsaqpnxiwvknthhzsrlmq77mnl2fi62guc4lwxif65syd.onion
This list is published, not monitored. An address that opens is not an address that is genuine, and the check that settles it takes under a minute.
An old address answers again
Every instinct says this is good news. It is the clearest single warning on this site.
Why it reaches the wrong people
Every other problem in this section is filtered by experience. This one inverts that. The reader most likely to hold a long dead address is the one who has been doing this longest, has the strongest sense of knowing what they are doing, and is least likely to check a string they recognise.
Familiarity does all the work, and familiarity has never been evidence. A retired address carries years of accumulated recognition in old posts, archived pages, unmaintained lists and bookmarks, and whoever answers there inherits every bit of it without doing anything.
Being precise about what is possible
| Possible? | |
|---|---|
| Taking over the exact address | No, absent a key compromise. The address is derived from a private key and serving traffic there requires holding it. |
| Standing up a close resemblance | Yes, and cheaply. This is what you will actually encounter. |
Matching the first four or five characters takes minutes on an ordinary machine. Seven or eight takes days and is still entirely practical. Matching all of it is impossible. So the forgery always has a familiar opening and a middle that differs, and the middle is the part nobody reads.
The habit that removes this
- Keep addresses somewhere you control, with the date beside each one. A browser bookmark hides the string behind a name you chose, which removes the moment you would have noticed a change.
- Compare what you hold against the published list every few weeks. Under a minute, and it is the whole maintenance burden.
- Delete rather than archive when something drops off. An address kept just in case is one you might paste on a distracted evening.
- Check the middle of any address you did not paste from a current list.