Dark Web Marketplace Users Start To Lose Trust

New law enforcement actions are starting to make criminals on the dark web marketplace lose trust in the entire system, mostly due to security concerns. According to a new study which is viral in the Bitcoin scam news, the dark web market has many authorities cracking down the cases and a “current volatility” within the landscape which results in a lot of instability for the sites that want to establish a fixed presence.

The cybersecurity company Trend Micro reported this on June 7, saying that crackdowns on markets such as Dream Market, Valhalla, DeepDotWeb and Wall Street Market have generated a lot of uncertainty among users regarding the unstable security infrastructure which dark web sites have been providing.

As we saw in the report, after March 2019 (when law enforcement shut down darknet sites), the sales activity experienced a considerable slowdown. Many doubts started to increase among users about their anonymity when making transactions. There was a similar sure in the exit scams – sites which shut down suddenly and stole money from the customers – and undercover actions by the authorities within these markets.

On top of the security concerns, there was lack of confidence in the darknet markets which led to the creation of a site called DarkNet Trust, created to verify vendors and their reputations by searching through usernames and PGP fingerprints.

The dark web marketplace users and administrators were also forced to add new security features including walletless markets, multi signatures on Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR) with no-javascript policies.

As Trend Micro reports, a walletless market is a method where payment is directly made between buyers and vendors, with the market getting a monthly commission as opposed to transaction fees. The report notes that new encrypted email services such as Sonar and Elude “suddenly” emerged, as users accused Protonmail of helping the overall law enforcement.

Overall, the recent months have seen increased all-around user skepticism. As we reported before in the Bitcoin news, one hacker stole and leaked the database of Daniel’s Hosting (DH) which is the largest free web hosting provider on the darknet and a home to many crypto-related forums and stores.

Meanwhile, the market today is stable and BTC managed to pursue $9,700 in a new 2.17% surge.