If you’re someone who likes strolling around Darknet Markets, this Icarus Market review may add an option to your list.
Does it have what it takes to dominate the Darknet industry? Are all the traditional Darknet products available? How does it compare to the other DNMs in terms of security, product, vending-policies and the other aspects?
That’s what we’ll try to answer throughout this Icarus Market review. We aim to cover every single aspect that’s connected even remotely to the marketplace. Here’s a run-down of everything included:
- Registration
- User-Interface
- Products
- Payments
- Security
- Vending
- Vendor-Transparency
- Support
That covers almost everything that there is to the marketplace, doesn’t it?
Icarus Market at a glance
This should get you an idea of everything that we’ll discuss in greater detail throughout this review:
- Primary URL: tjfr4vfwmq6df4hc.onion
- Payment: Monero + Bitcoin (Not wallet-less)
- Products: 2000+
- Registration: Mandatory, free.
- Security: PGP (communication + 2FA) / anti-phishing code/ mnemonic code/ PIN.
- Vending: Allowed, $100 fee.
- Mirrors: None.
Icarus Market Alternative Mirror:
- icaruot57k4s2fgrm5tz4dflj4rigvyixny2wygrnermispvasf6icad.onion
- icaruhkb6sndpgz3dwibqserprytvhplize5bfznjyzu7p44xdgptvqd.onion
- icarupok75xbjxqqqyxhgi4grb4lnzjkg52u3sqg7b4hnpyrmtwurhqd.onion
- icarucz2c5b5m24oqip2wjx5qehxr5haecfmgjxxt2otg45tjhlwnrid.onion
Registration
First-time visitors are required to register on Icarus Market before being able to explore or use any part of it.
A simple form asking for the following details needs to be filled up:
- A username
- A password.
- Secret phrase
- And a 6-digit security PIN.
The process takes less than 2 minutes at best. Also, anyone can register on the marketplace. Absolutely no invites or payments required.
Once registered, the account is activated instantly and there’s absolutely no wait/activation-period.
User-Interface
The UI is pretty standard, there’s no learning-curve per se. Anyone, including those with and without any DNM experience can navigate through the marketplace with equal ease.
There’s a bar on top which helps users reach various sections of the marketplace. A product product-category on the left-sidebar. Pretty standard eh?
However, what impressed us was its “Buyer Panel”. It can be reached by clicking on the “Buyer” option on the top-bar. Here’s what you should see:
This page provides a neat breakdown of a buyers’ activities on the marketplace. This includes the total amount of orders in fiat and BTC/XMR, number of orders, level of the buyer etc.
It also shows the number of orders which are being processed, shipped, have been refunded or disputed.
You can also easily find your accepted/shipped orders by clicking on “Buyer> Accepted orders/shipped orders”. This makes it possible to get an overview of all the orders on a centralized page, instead of having to check all the orders individually.
Products
The total number of products on the marketplace as of right now is just around 400. Sure, it’s not a very impressive number. But consider the fact that the marketplace is literally weeks old, and the number suddenly starts to look “not so bad”.
Up until yesterday, “Digital Products” was the most product-rich category on the marketplace. “Drugs” as was expected took over today and now has 159 listings in the category. As for digital products, exactly 152 products are available for purchase today.
A number of other products are available, these include Jewellery, Carded items, Software, Fraud-related products, Counterfeit items etc.
Services too haven’t been left-out. So far, it only lists services such as crypto-trading signals, a couple carding methods, and numbers from different countries. Although we’re positive it’ll soon be stocked up with hacking, carding, and maybe even some more aggressive services.
Restrictions:
Despite being on the dark web, not all marketplaces are without a moral compass. Fortunately, Icarus Market is one of those and hence, forbids the sale/trade of:
- Weapons
- Firearms
- Illegal porn.
Payments
So, how do buyers make payment on Icarus Market? Well you guessed it right, cryptocurrencies.
But which cryptocurrencies exactly? The following:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Monero (XMR)
The marketplace also has laid down the minimum amount of deposits it’ll accept for each of those two cryptocurrencies.
If you deposit BTC, it must equal a minimum of 0.0007 BTC. If it’s XMR you prefer, the deposit must be equal to 0.2 XMR.
Note that Bitcoin requires 1 confirmation before it’s considered a successful transaction. For XMR, the number of required confirmations is 10.
Security
The marketplace has exactly 3+1 security firewalls in place. These being:
- 2-Factor authentication.
- Security PIN
- Secret phrase.
- + the Mnemonic code.
The Mnemonic code has been listed as “+1” because you may or may not consider it to exactly be a “security feature”. It’s a random string of words, displayed right after registering on the marketplace. This helps users recover their accounts in case access is lost.
The secret phrase is an anti-phishing firewall and is common to quite a few marketplaces on the Dark web.
Similarly, the 2-FA too when enabled provides an additional layer of security to the users. It displays a PGP-encrypted message to the users, which then needs to be, and can be decrypted using only the private keys for that account. And this is required in addition to a user’s password, almost acting like a second password.
The marketplace also makes use of “Escrow” to facilitate safer trades. However, not all trades may be available with “Escrow”. Some established and reputed traders do have “Finalize-Early” rights.
But that’s about it. Overall, pretty acceptable security features.
Vending
Vending, or selling in a simpler term, should definitely be addressed in this Icarus Market review, right? And why not, considering the marketplace not only allows, but encourages sellers to sign up as vendors on the marketplace.
In an attempt towards the same, they recently uploaded this on the marketplace:
It clearly indicates the marketplace wants more vendors to join hands. However this is only for those vendors who’ve an established reputation to their name on other popular marketplaces.
For everyone else, here are the vending-norms:
Well yes, there’s a $100.00 vending-fee and it won’t be refunded under any circumstances. As far as our own experience goes, the vending-fee is at par with what most other newer marketplaces are charging, and in fact a bit lower than the standard price to be honest.
The non-refundable nature we believe hurts not just the vendors but also the buyers. Simply because, vendors wouldn’t be afraid of losing the deposit and would be more open to scam-opportunities.
Vendor-Transparency
This is a feature we pay special attention to. The amount of data a marketplace displays about its vendors before any purchase or contact has been made speaks volumes for its overall take on legitimacy and authenticity.
So well, we click on a vendor’s username, and here’s what it gets us:
As is evident, the following data is displayed transparently for each vendor:
- A trusted seal (if exists).
- Finalize-Early seal (if exists, indicates a trustworthy and established vendor).
- Level
- Dispute
- Feedback score.
- Registration date.
- And ratings from Empire Market*.
*We do believe the marketplace will also pull feedback and ratings from other marketplaces and not just Empire Market. For the screenshot above, maybe Empire was the only marketplace the vendor linked him/herself to.
But that’s not all, for any product that a buyer may be interested in, the listing also displays:
- of sales
- And Views.
We do believe the provided data helps buyers chaff the potential-scammers from the legitimate vendors without much confusion.
Support
The marketplace has three links under “Support”. These being:
- Tickets
- Disputes
- And F.A.Q.
Tickets can be opened by anyone and in an instant. They’re used for general queries about the marketplace or any other related issue.
Disputes are used when you’re not satisfied with the product/ or the buyer isn’t fulfilling his/her end of the deal.
The FAQ unfortunately isn’t live at the moment.
Final Verdict- Icarus Market Review
Wrapping this Icarus Market review up, here’s what we think of the marketplace:
- User-Interface: 5/5
- Products: 3/5
- Security: 4/5
- Vending: 4/5
- Support: 5/5
- Payments: 3/5
We’re certain the number of products will go up, and so will our score the next time we update this piece. As for vending, it’s rated low because of its no-refund policy.
“Payments” received a much lower score because it’s not wallet-less, and a forced minimum-deposit requirements exist. And security didn’t get a 5/5 simply because the marketplace currently is without “mirrors” which leaves it open to DDoS attacks.
But this Icarus Market review has been all us, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the marketplace as well in the comments.
