The AlphaBay darkweb market has come back in the limelight after an administrator of the actual project relaunched it over the weekend.  On the other hand, at the same time, the admin announced plans for setting up a platform for the darknet market to deploy the shop with a strong focus on anonymity.

AlphaBay OG reveals its Comeback

AlphaBay started in 2014 and it became the largest darknet market. The business ended when the law enforcement took it down on July 5, 2017. The cop also arrested Alexander Cazes in Thailand, a Canadian citizen utilizing the online alias Alpha02/Admin and one of the two AlphaBay administrators.

Someone named DeSnake was the other partner, who is responsible for the security of the market, and was never caught by the police. At the end of the last week, DeSnake revealed on a dark web forum that the AplhaBay Market relaunched and was ready for business.

Tom Robinson, the co-founder of blockchains analysis company Elliptic, discover DeSnake’s message to the darknet market community, where they introduced themselves as the “security administrator and co-founder of AlphaBay.”

DeSnake facilitates their original public PGP key used in the heydays of the illegitimate market to prove all their claims, permitting any individual to clarify the identity on Public PGP keyservers as mentioned below:

Moreover, a darknet user verifies DeSnake’s key and that they were part of the original AlphaBoy tech staff. The other one also confirmed the admin’s identity right after the private discussion on “things that only knew as the staff member if AlphaBay.”

One issue is that the admin may be doing this project from a negotiated position, pursuing instructions from law enforcement to manipulate vendors of illegal products.

One Network for Many Markets

In a tedious, five-part statement, DeSnake explains that they want to set new standards for viable models and build a “professionally-run, anonymous, protected marketplace.”

The perception down the line is bigger than this, though. DeSnake decided to develop a sovereign and unidentified Decentralized Market Network where anyone can deploy a marketplace.

From the explanation, it seems like an Amazon of darknet market that permits vendors and buyers to stray from one market to another using one account and without having to trust any of them with their cryptocurrency.

DeSnake says that the new AlphaBay has been built to last, using protected and an examined code, bulletproof servers, and safeguards against disruptions caused by hardware failure, police raids, or seizures.

The admin also displayed an automated system called AlphaGuard that “ensures/users/vendors can access their wallet funds (including escrow) at any time on I2P/Tor.”

Another system in place is Automatic Dispute Solver, which aims at solving problems between buyers and sellers without the intervention of a mediator.

DeSnake also laid out a set of rules for the new AlphaBay to bypass drawing unnecessary attention from law enforcement:

• NO harming others (hitman service etc.)
• NO guns/guns discussions (even for self-defense)
• NO erotica/porn of any sorts (logins for major sites are okay)
• NO fentanyl or fentanyl-laced/based substances
• NO Covid-19 vaccines of any sorts
• NO doxing or threats of doxing
• NO Russia/Belarus/Kazakhstan/Armenia/Kyrgyzstan-related activity (people, organizations, governments) or citizens data
• NO ransomware selling, recruiting for access to deploy ransomware or ransomware discussions

Researchers note that the rule restricting activity related to former Soviet Union countries is typical for threat actors based in those regions, to avoid scrutiny from local law enforcement.

AlphaBay now utilizes only Monero cryptocurrency and currently has only two featured listings, both for drugs.

Measurements for the forum show 19 members that exchanged 72 messages. In its glory days, AlphaBay served over 200,000 users and 40000 vendors. It had more than 250,000 listings for drugs and toxic chemicals alone. Hijacked and duplicate identification documents, malware, hacking tools, firearms, and fraudulent services accounted for another 100,000 listings.