After the fall of DarkMarket, there is a new market considered to be the largest on the dark web: White House. The new king of the illegal markets of the dark web also represents a trend that has been growing, preferring the use of Monero (XMR) instead of receiving payments with bitcoin (BTC).
Although the debate on the privacy of both cryptocurrencies takes time, it is the first time that the position as the main market of the dark web is occupied by a site that does not accept bitcoin and focuses solely on Monero.
This has been reviewed via Twitter by the user dark.fail (@DarkDotFail), an anonymous journalist specializing in the dark web and privacy, recognized in the darknet Reddit community as a reliable provider of information on these markets.
“For the first time on the darknet, the most active market does not accept Bitcoin. White House Market uses Monero, a cryptocurrency designed to safeguard the privacy of its previous owners, such as cash. “
dark.fail.
When entering the White House site, we can corroborate the information, in a brief message located in the “Bitcoin” section. The notification explains that they no longer accept BTC and refer to a guide on the use of Monero to be able to operate in the White House market, which has about 3,000 vendors, 38,000 items, and just under 200,000 active customers at the time of writing this note.
In the opinion of the creators of this market, “Bitcoin lacks the required privacy.” This, coupled with the fact that “some users do not know how to use it and neglect to clean their coins”, made them remove the option to pay with BTC and opt only for the privacy-focused coin that they currently accept.
Short notification informing that bitcoin is no longer accepted in the White House market. Source: White House.
Bitcoin and Monero in the battle for privacy on the dark web
During an investigation whose results were published in August of last year, in CriptoNoticias we were able to assess the panorama of adoption of Monero, the use of bitcoin and the fight for privacy in the environment of the dark web markets.
As we were able to identify, the concern for more private transactions and Monero has been installed as an option that is increasingly seen in these markets.
However, there are still few “monero-only” sites and bitcoin remains the preferred option. Most share the use of this and other currencies with bitcoin, as was the case with DarkMarket, closed by Europol just a few days ago.
As this newspaper reported, the police investigation determined that DarkMarket had received in total more than 4,650 BTC and 12,800 XMR that represented an amount over 150 million dollars at the current exchange rate.
Hundreds of offers for illegal products are found in the dark web markets, such as drugs of all kinds, fake documents or money, and stolen access credentials for countless websites. However, also in these markets legal products move to users who want to buy online with the greatest possible privacy.