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.
First access
Reaching a login screen for the first time. Mostly waiting, with one thing worth watching for.
- What this step is
- Opening one of the published addresses in Tor Browser and arriving at the market login screen.
- How to prepare
- The client installed and set to Safest, and a pinned fingerprint so the next step is possible.
- What you will see
- Usually a checking screen before anything else, then a plain login form. The interface will look older and simpler than you expect.
- How it works
- Your client builds a path through several relays and meets the service at an agreed point. Nothing along the way knows both ends, which is the whole design and also why it is slow.
- How long it takes
- A few seconds to half a minute on a good circuit. Longer is common and does not mean anything is wrong.
- What you will experience
- Waiting, with no progress indication worth reading. The urge to reload is strong and is the wrong instinct.
- What can go wrong
- Nothing loads, the checking screen loops, or the page looks subtly different from what others describe. Each has its own page in conditions.
- Benefits and limits
- Arriving proves only that a machine answered. It establishes nothing about who is running it.
The checking screen, explained
A hidden service cannot see who is connecting. There is no source address, no geography, no reputation, so the entire toolkit an ordinary website uses to separate people from automated traffic is unavailable.
What remains is asking the connecting client to do a small amount of work and proving it did. For one person that is invisible. For somebody opening a hundred thousand connections it is the difference between cheap and not worth doing. That asymmetry is the mechanism, and it is close to the only defence available at this layer.
| How long it sits there | What it means |
|---|---|
| A few seconds | Normal. Most of the wait is circuit latency rather than computation. |
| Twenty or thirty seconds | Congestion or a slow circuit. Annoying, not meaningful. A new circuit helps more than waiting. |
| Never finishes | Usually a dead circuit rather than a stuck check. Build a new one instead of continuing to wait. |
| Loops back repeatedly | Sometimes scripting settings, sometimes heavy filtering during a flood. If it persists across all three addresses, wait it out. |
What it does not do for you
It does not identify you, does not track you between visits, and leaves nothing persistent behind. It also provides you no protection at all. It protects the service from automated load, which is a different thing, and the thing that protects you is the check on the next page.