Libertas Market Shuts Down Due to 'Lack of Use' on I2P

Libertas Marketplace, less than one month after moving to the I2P network and shutting down their onion service, is closing up shop on I2P as well, citing the “lack of use of I2P.” In a closing message, the market, the Libertas admin claimed all marketplaces on the Tor network are honeypots operated by law enforcement.

Libertas Marketplace, a market that recently made a second appearance after vanishing for unknown reasons, ended operations on May 19, 2019. The announcement, published by an official Libertas Market account on Dread, called the shutdown a “hiatus until further notice.”

In May, the market opened up shop on the I2P network in an attempt to avoid the denial of service attacks that crippled most darkweb marketplaces. They originally kept both their hidden service storefront and their eepsite storefront open but encouraged users to make the switch to I2P. The irregular uptimes caused by the denial of service attacks inspired the move. The Libertas admin cited a more serious concern in the I2P announcement:

[T]he Tor network is not suitable for hidden services due to flaws in the network which allow denial of service attacks. These flaws allow law enforcement to determine which hidden services are allowed to operate, whether they are legitimate services or sting operations.

Days later, in a similar message, the Libertas Market administrator announced the closure of the Tor hidden service. The market would only operate on the I2P network. He posted a number of guides on setting up and using the I2P network. The guides, although straightforward and simple, required more effort than most darkweb market users usually expended when visiting marketplaces. Opening the Tor Browser and entering dark.fail into the address bar is simple and standard. Deviations requiring additional work in exchange for very little reward (unless the tor network is a honeypot) rarely lead to success, especially in this market sector.

Less than one month after making the switch, the Libertas Market administrator made the decision to end the market once again. This time, however, he left a message for users and presumably gave the few users of the eepsite an opportunity to send any last minute messages.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Libertas Marketplace is on hiatus until further notice, due to
lack of use of I2P. We were recently forced to move from the
Tor network to the I2P network, due to flaws which allow law
enforcement to take hidden service sites offline. We believe
that all sites which are allowed to operate on the Tor
network are law enforcement sting operations.

If you need to contact us regarding your account, you can do
so via Bitmessage: BM-2cWjbjtQY3UyZaissDwg9d2b6Sw21RsuWc.
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