The Grand Wizard's State of the Markets Address

We just posted this on DNM Avengers. Here's the text for our .onion - challenged readers. It is our response to a new vendor's question, "what's the best market to set up shop for 2016?" The Grand Wizard would be interested in hearing what others had to say on the subject.

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In terms of traffic AlphaBay is our biggest market: we're doing around 2/3 of our business there with the other 1/3 divided across our other stores. We're not impressed by the constant drama swirling around AB, but we note that most of the complainants appear reluctant to try any other market. So we stay there through necessity: ITGWE if you're looking to make a living out of this, you will probably need an AlphaBay shop.

The Grand Wizard has been very impressed by Hansa so far. It has become our #2 market with very little fanfare simply by offering solid service and safe, easy to use multisig. Its 2-of-2 escrow is no more complicated for buyers than the old model and considerably more resistant to hackers and cops. They may have finally created the transparent multisig implementation we've been waiting for: we certainly expect them to rise to or near the top in the present Battle Royale of the DNMs.

We have been doing surprising trade on Oasis. Last we checked 7%-10% of Oasis' transactions were done at GWL Oasis -- we're a big and fabulously sparkly fish in that small pond! They are running on a donations-only model right now. We do not believe that to be sustainable in the long term and would urge them to consider rolling out a commission-based model. Whatever they do, we are quite impressed so far.

Valhalla, like Oasis, has a rather minimalist interface. It started out as a Finnish market and later expanded to the rest of the world. We've done modest business there so far -- and note we get more customers on less-trafficked Hansa and Oasis than on far busier markets like Valhalla and Dream -- but we don't see things going anywhere but up.

ITGWO, DHL is the most attractive market on the darknets right now: their layout is beautiful and easy to use. We haven't had a sale there yet but we just opened so that's not surprising. Once we have done some business there we'll let you know how we feel about their BIP32 implementation. If you're interested in setting up shop on DHL you may have to wait a while: ITGWRC they closed vendor registrations a week or so ago.

DHL is beautiful: Outlaw... well, its interface is unique. It reminds the Grand Wizard of an emo fansite on Geocities c. 1997. They have a solid back-end and a decent selection of vendors. Their support has been incredibly helpful and responsive: more tech-oriented friends say their security is top-notch. Given as how they started up in the days of SR2 they certainly have a history. It's a shame so many people are put off by their aesthetic: there's a really good book inside that garish eyesore of a cover.

We are starting to do more business on Dream. Since they don't have multisig GWL Dream is an FE-only shop, but so far that arrangement has worked for us. Dream gets good traffic and has an impressive selection of vendors. If you insist on multisig Dream isn't for you, but if you are flexible we would definitely recommend giving them a look.

We don't have a Nucleus shop but are thinking about opening there. Depending on whom you ask they are presently either the #1 or #2 DNM, and while they had a rocky start we haven't heard a lot of Nucleus drama of late -- certainly nothing like the shitstorm that always swirls around AlphaBay. We love our customers and will gladly open up shop anywhere they want to give us their money.

Right now there is an excess of riches insofar as marketplaces go. AB and Nucleus are clearly among the top tier insofar as traffic and vendor selection. But there are few clear leaders among the surviving markets. We're active on six markets other than AlphaBay and each could conceivably rise to the top in the wake of another shakeup. In this climate multiple storefronts are advisable. You can always go into vacation mode if you're overwhelmed: you may not be able to open a new shop in the wake of another 5 November.


Comments


[23 Points] coffeencreme:

I've approved this for you GWL, sorry it got caught up in automod.


[13 Points] None:

[deleted]


[7 Points] oasismarket:

Hello,

Thank you very much!
We are not considering to introduce fees any time soon, we are happy with our donations-only model.

Thank you again,

Oasis


[4 Points] hotttkarl:

Isn't the grand wizard a klu klux klan thing? whats up with your name? always wondered.


[3 Points] counterstruck217:

the GWL seems to have his shit together!


[3 Points] DrQuarters_:

Nucleus gives comparable (nearly) sales numbers to alpha bay, however the Admins are absent. I have been enjoying DREAM's support and most features of their market, except there is no listing quantity.

Hansa is nice, and I would use it more often if I could find a group of buyers who understands multisig/will release on time.

I have not poked around DHL, that is on the Dr.'s to-do list.

Overall, I'm very dissatisfied with the markets, there is no one market that has everything anymore. We (the community) are experiencing growing pains.


[4 Points] Vendor_BBMC:

There are much worse things that can happen beside exit scams, which happens to nearly all marketplaces, but at alphabay is a stone-cold certainty. You know it will never get busted.

I heard that the alphabay server is hosted in one of the safest facilities in the world. It has great uptime, because the button to shut it down can only be pressed by Ukranian nuclear workers, using a scaffolding pole pushed through a hole drilled in a concrete wall.

If they take longer than half an hour, their face peels off when they remove their gas mask

It was trappy_Pandora's turn to do the reboot last time, geiger counters screaming around him and goggles misting up from the effort of bending his fingers in the lead-lined neoprene gloves, followed by a 50 mile drive without seeing another soul. They don't call it "Russia's bread basket" any more.

He was very sick at one point, but his blood count is returning to normal and there is no blood in his stool now. Groovybrewski's one-man carpet-bombing of alphabay received no response, and without a shred of evidence has convinced "no smoke without fire" reddit.

He thinks he's got away with it, but trappy's intellect is undimmed despite his radiation sickness. Yesterday, an "army of shills" began attacking Top_Gear_Uk, tweaking the paranoid tiger's tail and looking for all the world like Bruce's one-man-army.

TGUK ia A FULL BTVA member and big-money drug manufacturer who can take shit, and dish it out too. The 8 threads on the first page about him weren't subtle enough or funny enough to be /u/groovybrewski shills. Its almost as if somebody was trying to drop him in it, turn him into a production problem for Top Gear and BBMC to solve.

SOMEBODY has crossed the line. The old Top_gear would have stomped about, smashing cars with his tail before climbing a skyscraper, swatting at biplanes. Fortunately, the older, mature Top_gear didn't fly off the handle and blame Bruce, gammagoblin or LSD avengers.

That's the trouble with alphabay:- it's involved in sneaky webforum politics at the highest-level. You never hear a squeak from Nucleus, like agora before it.


[2 Points] None:

[deleted]


[2 Points] ShulginsCat:

All I want is a proper search function. Whenever I'm looking for a specific drug I have to go through 6 markets and I'm never sure if the search is busted or is there actually no vendor selling it. Grams used to work but I don't know if they index all the new markets. On top of that some markets return bogus results for certain keywords, or you just get a bunch of listings for audiobooks and tea cozies. The state of our markets is bad.


[2 Points] lettucethief:

I like this write up GWL. It gives me an understanding on which markets to look for in unbiased eyes. I never know when to trust deepdotweb anymore.


[2 Points] None:

This is such a quality post. You're my favorite vendor and Darknet personality <3


[1 Points] trapboe:

Set up on nuke and ween off of Alpha. I think they are due for an exit soon.


[1 Points] rektmatey:

I feel Hansa is a good market too. Nice UI and I like the multisig they've implemented.


[1 Points] megatron16:

Dear /u/GrandWizardsLair why do I start shaking when a market goes down for a mere moment. I start to sweat and start murmuring exit scam? I then do a bong hit to calm me down and shortly there after the market is back online. I fear this is a case of the mid evil exitscamitis dating back to the Gregorian age. Can you help?


[1 Points] throwaxanny:

Honestly nucleus is my favorite by far right now. I've been using it as a back up market waay back since Evo and Agora days, and it's still around and with plenty of vendors.

A little drama here and there I've seen but support made it right that one time when a bunch of vendors got hacked or whatever. And not nearly as much drama as Alphabay.

Interface is nice and simple and I've gotten a dispute or 2 resolved.

I like Dream too, I think it can have potential to be a next big one. They're support is on point, I got a dispute resolved in like 6 hours.


[1 Points] circuljurk:

funny to read this now and Nucleus and EIC are the ones gone and AB is still around. Why isn't Python listed on dnstats.net?