On February 13th, TheCypriot, a senior admin of AlphaBay, posted an update on Reddit regarding the market. He advises users not to use AlphaBay until the 2FA issue is solved.
Below is the full update he posted:
You can find TheCypriot's PGP key here, and a signed version of this message here.I am sorry I forgot I was on Reddit.
A much longer post.
The hierarchy of the market is as follows:
DeSnake – Owner – Private keys server access, total control
TheCypriot – Admin – Runs day to day market and staff when it’s running. Does not have private keys or server access but has most staff authority
Tempest – Senior Moderator
Amades – Junior Moderator
Wxmaz – Junior Moderator
EvZen – Junior Moderator
Parsed – Scam watch and PR. Incredibly patient normally deals with these types of things but I decided to create an account since this is the longest we have had a lockout.
Peke – Forum Moderator
I am the admin of the market. I am not the owner. I do not have the power to remove the 2FA lock on the market.
There are two canaries for those that bother to read them. You can go to any working .onion link or .I2P link and simply add /canary.txt
Canary 1 is a posted PGP signed message you can read and verify. It is signed by DeSnake and is self explanatory if you read it.
Canary 2 is a lock on our PGP module which handles all signing and creation of PGP messages. This has a direct impact on any account with 2FA (Staff and vendors mandatory, customers encouraged). You will get an error message saying ERROR: Data signing failed. This means the market is locked because DeSnake has not signed with his PGP key for a month and the market locks down for safety.
This has lead to some confusion for people who are willfully ignorant or do not use and understand the way AlphaBay worked. DeSnake signed in the market, put the main back online and I thought signed the PGP lock on 15 January but this is a guess. DeSnake signed into the market on 25 January and signed the text canary and posted it to the market for all to read.
How do you verify any of this is real. Well at least that I am who I say I am. You can get my PGP key from many places. Normally I would recommend Dread when it comes back up but anyone with an account that does not have 2FA on it can still log into the market. You can search for my username and see my PGP key. You can verify the signature. If you would like to learn more about PGP you can go here: http://biblemeowimkh3utujmhm6oh2oeb3ubjw2lpgeq3lahrfr2l6ev6zgyd.onion/bible/pgp/ or here reddit.com/r/pgp.
For those that love to spread FUD and have extra time on their hands you can say this is a honey pot. The best designed honey pot ever. It is so exclusive we block you from accessing it.
The current situation is this:
The market main link is down and has been up and down for probably 2 months due to DDOS. You will get this error: Onionsite Not Found
Our users who have earned one had private links. This is not working but gives marginally better results. You can get to the DDOS landing page (our clock) but after you solve the challenge you get a 502 timeout error.
I2P has been up without DDOS issues. The market had full functionality just no PGP key. You could register an account. You could make and receive a deposit. You could withdraw your balance. Your vendors can not login so there is no reason to do it.
Until the 2FA issue is solved with DeSnake logging in, nobody should use the market because it is locked down. If DeSnake comes back and signs the key then you can argue among yourselves if you should use the market or not like any other market.
Edit as I type this on 14 February the I2P will not connect for me.
With all of this said and a too long explanation. Do not use the market. Easy to say since you can not use the market even if you want to.
In my experience over the years this is not LE. Feel free to discuss, many of you will but the signs just are not there. If it is it would be the worst planned and executed LE action in the history of the markets. They didn’t even put up a fancy seizure screen. (Hat tip to the Dutch team for top notch graphics). Doesn’t mean that it wasn’t.
In my experience this is not an exit. I mean if it doesn’t come back it would be, but it would be the most poorly planned and executed exit in the history of the markets. Doesn’t mean that it wasn’t.
So that is all. We all get to wait and see what happens next and move on with our lives either way.
Amades, a junior moderator on AlphaBay, posted a proof of life message in the comments.
so we are all fucked if desnake doesnt come back