The revived version of AlphaBay requires users to pay only in Monero cryptocurrency and is available through I2P.
The administrator of the underground marketplace AlphaBay, using the pseudonym DeSnake, is back to work. More than four years ago, the US Department of Justice announced the closure of AlphaBay. Thai police have arrested 26-year-old website administrator Alexander Cazes in Bangkok, and the FBI has seized control of AlphaBay's central server in Lithuania, neutralizing the underground market. But the fate of one key black market player was never resolved - the second AlphaBay administrator, alias DeSnake.
Desnake has now relaunched AlphaBay under its leadership. According to the administrator in an interview with WIRED, he left unscathed after the collapse of AlphaBay and intends to revive the former glory of the underground market.
The revived version of AlphaBay requires users to buy and sell goods only with the Monero cryptocurrency, which is much more difficult to trace than Bitcoin. AlphaBay's dark web site is now accessible not only through Tor, as it used to be, but also through the less popular I2P anonymity system.
DeSnake said his work computers run an "amnesiac" operating system, such as the security-focused Linux distribution Tails, which is not designed for storage. According to the administrator, it does not store any compromising data on hard drives or USB drives, either encrypted or unencrypted. DeSnake has also prepared a USB-based "emergency shutdown" device designed to wipe the memory of his computers and shut them down in seconds if they ever get out of his control.
But all of these technical and operational defenses may be of less importance than geographic. According to DeSnake, he is in a non-extradited country, out of the reach of US law enforcement.
Desnake wants to attract users with the promise of an as yet untested system, which it calls AlphaGuard. The system allows users to withdraw their funds even if the authorities seize control of AlphaBay's servers again.
As DeSnake describes, AlphaGuard automatically leases and configures new servers if it detects that AlphaBay is shutting down. The administrator claims that AlphaGuard will automatically hack into other websites and host data on their servers, providing users with “exit codes” that they can use to save the cryptocurrency stored on AlphaBay.
DeSnake is also in the early stages of implementing a fully decentralized market system. In this scheme, programmers and server operators will receive a portion of the profits from the hosting markets, which form a vast dark web without a single point of failure.
The administrator of the underground marketplace AlphaBay, using the pseudonym DeSnake, is back to work. More than four years ago, the US Department of Justice announced the closure of AlphaBay. Thai police have arrested 26-year-old website administrator Alexander Cazes in Bangkok, and the FBI has seized control of AlphaBay's central server in Lithuania, neutralizing the underground market. But the fate of one key black market player was never resolved - the second AlphaBay administrator, alias DeSnake.
Desnake has now relaunched AlphaBay under its leadership. According to the administrator in an interview with WIRED, he left unscathed after the collapse of AlphaBay and intends to revive the former glory of the underground market.
The revived version of AlphaBay requires users to buy and sell goods only with the Monero cryptocurrency, which is much more difficult to trace than Bitcoin. AlphaBay's dark web site is now accessible not only through Tor, as it used to be, but also through the less popular I2P anonymity system.
DeSnake said his work computers run an "amnesiac" operating system, such as the security-focused Linux distribution Tails, which is not designed for storage. According to the administrator, it does not store any compromising data on hard drives or USB drives, either encrypted or unencrypted. DeSnake has also prepared a USB-based "emergency shutdown" device designed to wipe the memory of his computers and shut them down in seconds if they ever get out of his control.
But all of these technical and operational defenses may be of less importance than geographic. According to DeSnake, he is in a non-extradited country, out of the reach of US law enforcement.
Desnake wants to attract users with the promise of an as yet untested system, which it calls AlphaGuard. The system allows users to withdraw their funds even if the authorities seize control of AlphaBay's servers again.
As DeSnake describes, AlphaGuard automatically leases and configures new servers if it detects that AlphaBay is shutting down. The administrator claims that AlphaGuard will automatically hack into other websites and host data on their servers, providing users with “exit codes” that they can use to save the cryptocurrency stored on AlphaBay.
DeSnake is also in the early stages of implementing a fully decentralized market system. In this scheme, programmers and server operators will receive a portion of the profits from the hosting markets, which form a vast dark web without a single point of failure.
