Ever heard of Darknet Markets or Dark Markets and how people can buy pretty much anything they want online, legal or otherwise? Well it's true. There is a thriving underground commerce taking place in the deep dark corners of the internet where pretty much anything you can imagine is being openly sold.
Here is a list of categories from one of if not the most popular market AlphaBay:
- Fraud
- Drugs & Chemicals
- Guides & Tutorials
- Counterfeit Items
- Digital Products
- Jewels & Gold
- Weapons
- Carded Items
- Services
- Software & Malware
- Security & Hosting
I'm not going to judge you for what you want to buy and I will educate you here in this article on how to create an account on AlphaBay so you can start browsing the market but I do not encourage you to commit any crimes. What you do with this information is on you. Be warned shopping for illegal items on darknet markets is a high risk activity proceed with extreme caution.
If you aren't already familiar with how to access Tor hidden services aka .onion sites you should read my previous article; How To Access the Darknet - The Easiest Way to Start Surfing The Hidden Underground Internet Safely and Anonymously. If you would like to use Monero instead of bitcoin to make your purchases more anonymous you can check out this article here; How to Setup a Monero Wallet to Send and Receive Funds Anonymously - Windows Guide.
Setting Up PGP Keys
Before you setup an account with AlphaBay you're going to need to have your own PGP key pair for encryption and decryption of messages securely. If you already have a PGP key pair you can skip this process.
I recommend using a portable PGP program so that you aren't openly storing these keys for others using the computer to see. I keep my PGP keys and software on an encrypted USB key. Wherever you keep yours make sure they are safe from nosy people, backed up and password protected.
I recommend using Portable PGP and will be using it for this guide. It is open source and java based so it will work on all platforms. You can download the USB stick version here PortablePGP-1.0.7_decompress_on_a_usb_drive.zip
After you've unzipped the files run the exe or sh file depending on which platform you are using and you should see this screen:
If you already have a key pair you can import it otherwise click the top button to generate a new key pair. All the information it asks you for is optional. I typically will only fill in the name portion for easier reference later and the password for security. By using a password you protect your keys in case the private key falls into the wrong hands.
Okay that's it you now have a brand new key pair generated that was pretty painless right? I recommend you click on the icon that looks like a disk to save a copy of your keys for later. Keep this window open we'll need to use when registering for AlphaBay.
Registering an AlphaBay Account
In your Tor browser (always with javascript disabled for safety) head on over to AlphaBay using any of these official links:
alphabaywyjrktqn.onion
pwoah7foa6au2pul.onion
stbux7lrtpegcra2.onion
jsbpbdf6mpw6s2oz.onion
zdfvqospmrbvzdn3.onion
sszoxp4dqmt24jng.onion
nracund2vx6lxzck.onion
lo4wpvx3tcdbqra4.onion
You will most likely land on what I refer to as the annoying captcha. Why annoying? Because you have to fill the damn thing out at least 3 times it seems. Don't be surprised if you need to resolve this captcha a few times.
After you get through the captcha gauntlet you should land on the login screen.
Click on the 'register' link to go to the new account registration page. Fill out the registration form. I only fill mandatory fields and the PGP key since they will force it on you in the next step anyways.
You can get your public by saving the key to a text file in PGP Portable and then opening that file with notepad it should look like the screen below and remember give out only your public key never give out your private key.
After you have submitted the registration form you will be brought to a page for 2FA which means 2 Factor Authentication. You are going to prove that you do indeed have the private key for the public key that you just submitted on the previous page. You will prove this by decrypting their message. So copy all the encrypted text from this page.
Open the PGP Portable window and click on the 'Decrypt' button. Click on the 'Decrypt ASCII-Armored Text' option button and paste the encrypted text from AlphaBay into the text box.
Press the decrypt button and it should ask you for a password. Use the password that you used when creating the key pair. You should now see the decrypted text with your security code for AlphaBay.
Copy and paste the security code into the AlphaBay 2FA form. It will then bring you to yet another security measure. This one is a mnemonic passphrase. You will need to write this down or store it somewhere safe. Copy and paste it back into the form (just like when signing up for a Steemit.com account) and you're done!
You will now finally be on the AlphaBay market homepage with your brand new account.
Have fun but make sure to steer clear of the brown acid, I repeat, steer clear of the brown acid ;)