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.
Placing an order
The step where money stops being a balance and becomes a contract. Worth understanding precisely, because the protection is real and narrower than people assume.
- What this step is
- Committing funds to a specific order, which moves them from your balance into an escrow arrangement.
- How to prepare
- A funded balance, and a vendor profile you have actually read rather than skimmed.
- What you will see
- An order confirmation with a reference and a delivery window. Note both, because both matter later.
- How it works
- The funding key is split across buyer, vendor and platform. Funds move when two of the three sign. In normal completion buyer and vendor sign and the platform key never appears.
- How long it takes
- Seconds to place. The window that follows is where the time goes.
- What you will experience
- A quiet period with no information, which is normal and which people find harder than they expect.
- What can go wrong
- A vendor who does not ship, an item not as described, or silence. All covered in conditions.
- Benefits and limits
- Escrow removes one risk completely and leaves several untouched. The table below is the honest version.
What escrow covers
| Situation | Covered? |
|---|---|
| The platform disappearing with escrowed funds | Yes. This is the risk it was built for, and it works, because doing it requires a majority of vendors to actively sign away their own money. |
| A vendor who does not ship | No. That is a dispute, decided on evidence, and the outcome depends on what you submitted. |
| Your own account being compromised | No. Somebody holding your account signs as you. |
| Anything paid outside escrow | No. There is no mechanism at all, which is why the request is always refused. |
| A balance not committed to an order | No. Escrow governs orders. A balance has no order attached. |
| What you actually receive | No. Escrow decides when money moves and has no opinion on goods. |
Reading a vendor profile first
- Volume behind the rating. A perfect score across nine orders says little. The same score across nine hundred says a lot.
- Recency. Reputation built two years ago describes a vendor who existed two years ago. Accounts change hands.
- Dispute rate rather than count. High volume vendors accumulate disputes as arithmetic. The rate is the signal.
- Written feedback rather than scores. Text carries hesitations a number cannot.
- Order size you can survive. The only variable entirely under your control, and the one that decides how bad a wrong judgement is.
The request that ends the protection
Any suggestion to pay directly rather than through escrow, for any reason. Faster, cheaper, escrow is having problems, a discount for direct payment, we have dealt before. Every reason is the same reason. There is no recovery mechanism for a payment sent outside escrow, so the request is declined without evaluating the explanation.