Alphabay Market is one of the first names which strikes out on any “ Darknet market ” discussion.

So after going through a number of Alphabay market reviews, I took it upon me to scribble my own experience and time with Alphabay out here to paint a clearer picture of what and how efficient Alphabay is.

Warning: Alphabay is down since 4 July 2017, hope they will come back soon. best alternative market visit Dream Market .

Alphabay Market Overview

Alphabay was founded in December 2014. And since then it has only skyrocketed in its popularity on the deep web .

It was founded by someone who is only known as alpha-02, and as stated by him in an Interview, the “exit scam” pulled by “Evolution” ( the largest marketplace at that time) contributed greatly towards boosting Alphabay to the top.

Alphabay is also popular because of the fact that it has truly implemented an extensive list of security features, to prevent any kind of fraud, rippers, and exit-scams of any kind. ( Which will be discussed with through details in the later sections).

• Alphabay Total Listings: – 1,62,830 ( as on 30.05.2017)
• Primary URL :- pwoah7foa6au2pul
• Subreddit: – www.reddit.com/r/alphabay
• Universal Official Forum: – pwoah7foa6au2pul/forum/index.php

Alphabay Market URLs:

• alphabaywyjrktqn
• pwoah7foa6au2pul
• as2bd6nzter2nvuk
• jsbpbdf6mpw6s2oz
• zdfvqospmrbvzdn3
• sszoxp4dqmt24jng
• nracund2vx6lxzck
• lo4wpvx3tcdbqra4

1). Security – 5/5

I need not emphasize how important “security” on a dark net market is. With all the scammers and rippers out there, it’s important that the market you choose has top-notch security.

As far as the security on Alphabay Market is concerned, I was impressed. As I mentioned in the first section, Alpha02 stated that they have taken maximum measures and precautions to make sure both sellers as well as vendors stay safe and legit.

Some of Their Security Features Are:

• Scam-Watch Team – it’s comparatively newer feature which consists of an experienced team of security researchers, hackers and people who specialize in preventing scammers, malware infections, fraud etc on the marketplace.
• PGP Encryption – They support PGP encryption both for buyers as well as sellers. The buyers can use a simple PGP message to authenticate that they are on the real Alphabay market, while their more aggressive effort, the PGP-Proof of Deposit Address makes sure that all the addresses where buyers are asked to send Bitcoins are indeed Alphabay verified BTC accounts and not scam attempts.
• 2 Factor Authentications – It’s optional for buyers/users to enable 2FA for added security, while it’s mandatory for vendors.
• Coin Tumbler – They recently added a new feature which makes it I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E for anyone, with any level of knowledge or hardware to determine that your Bitcoins are coming from “Alphabay”. It’s a great feature for vendors, as well as can be used as a “ coin tumbler ” to break the source or origins of Bitcoins for rock-solid anonymity.
• MultiSig Transactions – It gives the buyers ironclad security against exit-scam. In the simplest possible words, it’s a process where you buy the product > send BTC to address > the final “ private key ” is sent to seller if you finalize the sale and if you dispute and win, the keys are sent to you. The person who owns this private key will have ownership of the coins, period.
• PIN Enabled Purchases – It can be enabled for an extra layer of security, with this, users would be able to make purchases on Alphabay Market only after entering a PIN which is different from the general password.

They also support Vendor bonds and a number of other security measures apart from the ones listed above.

Now probably you get why I was impressed, don’t you?

2). User-Interface – 4/5

The name “Dark web” somewhat makes everything look shady and complicated.

Although to my surprise when I first landed on Alphabay Market, I found that it was no different than browsing any other website or forum on the web.

There’s the TOP bar, consisting of most of the options you’ll need to navigate to different parts of the site.

Then there’s my profile information on the left-side, with my balance, level, sales etc.

And it lets me access different listings via its highly categorized listing section, as well as by using the “ Search ” at the center of the screen.

So well you won’t ever have to “hunt” for options or features, it’s all laid out as simply as is possible.

3). Services and Goods Offered:- 5/5

Alphabay Market is the leading darkweb market out there, so naturally, an abundance of services have been laid out for the users.

Infact, if there’s something you’re searching for and it’s not available on Alphabay, chances of it being available anywhere else are extremely thin, that’s just how deep-rooted the Alphabay Market is.

• Drugs –  Majority of Alphabay’s listings consist of “ Drugs ”. ( Not that we recommend you buying or taking drugs!)
• Online Accounts – Ranging from unlimited porn accounts, Netflix accounts, to online banking details they’ve got everything.
• Weapons !
• Carded Items – Items which were bought with someone else’s cards are sold at dirt-cheap prices.
• Guide and Tutorials – How to make money, create a specific kind of site and everything else kind of guides are available.
• Hosting / Server/ Socks / VPN etc at cheap prices.
• Digital products , Gadgets , Services and so on.

And these are to name just a few of the available services. The extremely advanced search filter helps you land on the exact product you are searching for with ease.

You can narrow your search down to an extremely specific choice, letting you control every aspect of the trade, starting from the country, trader level, currencies accepted, to the time a trader needs between an order being placed and shipping the item!

4). Currencies Supported – 5/5

Initially, Alphabay supported only Bitcoins. Which isn’t a surprise considering how it’s the leading cryptocurrency out there.

Next Read: Best Place for Buy Bitcoins

But on 22 ^nd Aug, 2016 they announced that they’re working towards Monero acceptance, and by Sep. 1 ^st 2016 they went live with Monero as a currency on the platform.

Similarly on March 18 ^th , 2017 they started Ethreum integration and were fully functional by May 1 ^st 2017.

And as the most recent addition to the Alphabay Market, they started accepting Zcash from July 1 ^st , 2017!

Next Read: How to buy bitcoins with Credit Card

5). Other Features – 4/5

• AutoShop – It’s a fully automated Credit card shop over at Alphabay market which let’s you buy credit cards with advanced search filters eliminating the need of middle-man traders. The complete process is automated with instant card delivery.

• Vendor Reputation Verifier – One of the simplest ways Alphabay Market protects its users is by showing you the reputation and trust level of the seller. It’s not something they can just buy, instead the sellers have to build their reputation and trust after months of successful sales and time, so a seller with high reputation automatically means he/she is someone who won’t scam you. You can verify complete details including his total disputes, positive and negative feedbacks as well as the actual comments left by buyers after a trade.

• Digital Contracts – Alphabay market was the first ever darknet market to integrate digital contracts on their platform. It’s a simple PGP-signed contract which can be initiated by anyone on the platform for a negligible fee. It uses PGP encryption to verify the authenticity of the contract, and at time of any dispute, all the clauses alongside the terms & conditions of the contract are verified by Alphabay team/moderators and a verdict is given out.
• Easy depositing and Withdrawal of Funds – We can easily deposit funds using an address provided to us from Alphabay. The same ease can be experienced with Withdrawals as well.

Alphabay Pros:

• Highly secure.
• Escrow service.
• Extensive product-listings.
• 4 different currency support.
• Coin tumbler anonymizes transactions.
• “Buyer” reputation is supported for easy deals as well!

Alphabay Cons:

• Not 100% scam-proof. There always is someone, somewhere able to manipulate the team and get away with your coins. This holds true for each and every darkweb market out there.

Alphabay Market – Final Verdict

So let’s just wrap up our review overall review on Alphabay Market.

As a dark-web market, it’s no doubt at the very top of its competition, so that already tells us that it’s trustworthy as well as feature-rich.

And from my own personal experience, I’d say it’s “ newbie friendly ”, makes you feel secure with all its security measures and has truly taken steps to prevent any kind of scams on the platform.

Not to mention that they’re highly innovative which is always a good sign, this I’m stating based on the fact that Alphabay marketplace was the first ever platform to embed Digital contracts, as well as that many security features as discussed in earlier parts of this Alphabay market review.

And the features discussed above are just an outline of what Alphabay market is. As you dig deeper, chances are you’ll be greeted with features which might take you totally by surprise.

Check out: Best Darknet Markets

So Bottomline is, it’s “The” best market out there. It might not have “all” the feature you or I wish for, but as far as darknet markets are concerned, Alphabay is just as good as it gets.

Overall Verdict – 4.5/5