Liberty Market review: Is this the new darknet leader in the “marketplace” industry? We’ll see.
Throughout this piece, we aren’t passing any judgements. We’d simply compare, contrast and lay out the basics of the marketplace to you transparently.
Based on the facts you should make your own decision of how high a pedestal you wish to place it on. Beware though, it’s still in a womb and hence may need some time before being “impressive”.
Anyway, the questions we’re answering today include:
- What are Liberty Market registration policies?
- What can (and can’t) be bought on Liberty Market?
- Can Liberty Market vendors be trusted?
- Is Liberty Market secure?
- Does Liberty Market support escrow?
- How can someone pay on Liberty Market?
- How is Liberty Market’s search feature?
- Who can sell on Liberty Market?
- What are the Liberty Market mirrors?
- Is Accessing Liberty Market illegal?
Let’s see if the answers to these questions are acceptable?
Liberty Market overview
Before we begin, how about we get you an outline of the entire marketplace? Helps form a general idea:
- Onion URL: liberty6o7lubin4t2nzyebylmk4l4xfw6kk2o5xhg3fahqoatfiprqd.onion
- Age: Less than a month old (January 2021)
- Products: <100
- Independent vendors: accepted
- Wallet-less: No.
- Accepts: Monero and Bitcoin
- Multisig transactions: No.
Let’s get going on this Liberty Market review then?
What are Liberty Market registration policies?
If you’re just getting started on the darknet, you need to know who and how can someone register on Liberty, right?
Well, it’s one of those “open for everyone” darknet markets. In other words, you do not need special invite codes or referral links to sign up on Liberty Market.
The registration form is exactly as with most other darknet markets. It only asks for:
- An username
- Your password
- And a PIN.
That’s completely anonymous and brief, isn’t it? The accounts too are activated instantly, without any wait-period.
As soon as registration is completed, the market also offers a mnemonic code.
This makes sure a user doesn’t lose his/her account if the password is forgotten or the PGP lost.
What can (and can’t) be bought on Liberty Market?
For any darknet market, its product-arsenal is of prime importance, isn’t it? Unless it sells the right products, we doubt it’ll see any success.
Well, Liberty Market has a few primary product categories. These include Drugs, Fraud, Counterfeit items, Software, Digital Products etc.
Do note that each of these categories primarily sell “illegal” products. As in, you’ll find pirated/cracked software in the “Software” category, cards, bank details, e-books etc. in the “Digital Products” category and so on.
Now, what can’t you buy on Liberty Market? While the dark web is generally credited with sale of weapons, hitman sites, and underage porn, all of that’s banned on Liberty Market. It also doesn’t allow the sale of personal info or Fentanyl.
Do note that this list isn’t 100% accurate. Meaning, at times, vendors may list restricted items and they may be available for purchase for a short period of time before they’re removed by the market.
Can Liberty Market vendors be trusted?
Despite sounding like a “social” question, we assure you it’s not. Rather, we’d approach this technically.
Now, there’s this thing we take into account called “vendor transparency”. It’s the amount of information a market shows about a vendor before a purchase is made. The more transparent and detailed the information, the better decisions buyers can make.
E.g. here’s what’s shown if we click on a vendor’s username on Liberty Market:
It shows the total number of sales made by the vendor in general, as well for each individual product. This we believe is a major trust-indicator. The more sales a vendor has, the less likely he/she is to scam you.
There are other indicators, such as ratings for each individual aspect of the sale (stealth/ quality/ price etc.), feedback, level of the vendor etc. Again, the level is only increased depending on the number of sales and hence the vendor-level too can be used to chaff out the more legitimate vendors from the potential scammers.
Is Liberty Market secure?
A legitimate question. After all, it’s a darknet market, isn’t it? For starters, we’re a bit disappointed with it not being a wallet-less market. The chances of an exit-scam are lesser on a wallet-less market, right?
However, it’s traditional for DNMs (Darknet Markets) to be centralized with their wallets and hence let’s go with it for now.
As far as technical security goes, remember that PIN you set during registration? Well, that’s used for authorizing withdrawals. From your settings page, you can also make it so that it’ll be required for all purchases.
Also, 2-FA can be activated for all accounts. It’s PGP-based and does require basic PGP knowledge. However, that’s one of the most secure forms of authentication that’s available on DNMs.
The mnemonic code is another security feature which helps keep accounts safe. They also help recover hacked accounts.
The “vendor transparency” discussed earlier too can be counted as a security feature, don’t you agree?
In addition to that, some vendors on the market ship “decoy” packages for an additional charge. That also makes the entire trade secure and untraceable, don’t you agree?
Does Liberty Market support Escrow?
Obviously, that’s like the primary reason why the market exists to begin with. It does offer Escrow on all trades. Some vendors however do get F.E (Finalize-Early) privileges.
You as a buyer will get to know a vendor’s escrow policy beforehand. This will let you make conscious decisions about the type of escrow you wish to go with.
Along with escrow, the feature for “disputing” trades naturally exists. It’s applicable both for the vendor and the buyer in case they suspect a scam.
How can someone pay on Liberty Market?
Liberty Market accepts deposits via Bitcoin and Monero. A new wallet address needs to be requested after each deposit.
Do note that there’s a minimum deposit requirement of 0.0005BTC. But that’s just enough to take care of the transaction charge and hence it’s not exactly an “obstacle” per-se.
Withdrawals are supported and there’s no minimum withdrawal limit as long as the transaction charge is covered.
How is Liberty Market’s search feature?
The search feature isn’t the most advanced or filter-rich we’ve ever seen. However, it does cover the basic filters.
Here’s a glance at what it looks like:
Now, our favourite filters, i.e. the minimum & maximum price-range filters do exist. A lot of markets skip out on these but fortunately Liberty doesn’t.
On top of that, the “category” filter in addition to a “source” and “destination” filter make searches better. The payment currency, in addition to the escrow type too can be filtered.
As far as our experience goes, the search filter only seems to work with JavaScript. Searches do not yield any results without JavaScript. In a nutshell, it’s an acceptable if not impressive feature.
Who can sell on Liberty Market?
Anyone who has the right products, and can afford to pay the vendor fee can sell on Liberty Market.
In order to get a vendor account, users first need to create a normal buyer account. The account can then be upgraded to the vendor level.
There’s no mention of the vendor-bond being refundable so it’s probably not. The exact amount isn’t mentioned either but then again it being a new market the bond is probably priced cheap.
What are Liberty Market mirrors?
Like all other darknet markets, Liberty too has “mirrors”. These mirrors are basically additional URLs which ensure the market is live in case the primary URL goes down.
These are the currently live Liberty Market official mirrors:
- liberty4mhc252jcz6acjndbotamlajtoo43qcmz4i62lc4b2ol4aeyd.onion
- liberty5wpigjwlqj7jse7y3ya2rc572n4lpwsndyuzbfqnpkxkr3sid.onion
- liberty6o7lubin4t2nzyebylmk4l4xfw6kk2o5xhg3fahqoatfiprqd.onion
Is accessing Liberty Market illegal?
Because we’re answering questions in this Liberty Market review, let’s address the Elephant in the room?
Well, no. “Accessing” it isn’t illegal. You can even buy/sell on the market as long as you’re buying legally obtained, legal goods. The entire act becomes illegal if and when you trade illegal or illegally obtained goods.
In either case, do note that this piece is solely for educational purposes. Using it for any other purpose is solely your own responsibility.
Do get a VPN before you access any of the links above. It’ll make sure you can’t be traced even if your Tor exit-relay is malicious or the browser as a whole is compromised.
Liberty Market review final verdict-Yay or nay?
As a new market, it still has a lot to improve upon. Personally, we’d like to see a “login phrase” feature included that helps avoid phishing in a big way.
However, from what’s available so far, the market does seem to offer all the basics. The product-categories are acceptable, the payment modes and deposit policies too are along the same lines.
Being honest, it’s too soon to judge the market right away. For now, let’s just sum this Liberty Market review up saying it has an equal chance at both succeeding as well as failure.