EVERGREEN EXPLAINER · 2026
What Is a Darknet Market? How Mars Runs on Tor
A darknet market is a store that runs as a Tor hidden service, settles orders through escrow, and asks both sides to use PGP. This page explains what a darknet market is, how the parts fit together, and how it differs from an ordinary clearnet shop. It uses Mars as a running example.
What Mars means on this page
The word Mars is crowded. Here it points at one thing only: a darknet marketplace reached over Tor. It is not the fourth planet from the Sun. It is not the chocolate bar. It is not a basketball team or a person. If you arrived looking for astronomy, candy, or sport, this is not that. Everything below treats Mars strictly as a market.
How the pieces connect on Tor
Strip away the branding and every market is the same shape. A buyer reaches a hidden service through Tor, funds sit in escrow while an order is worked, and a vendor ships once the market releases the hold. PGP wraps the messages and Monero moves the money. Here is that shape drawn out.
What is a Tor hidden service?
A hidden service is a site whose address ends in dot onion and only resolves inside Tor. There is no public DNS record and no clearnet IP to trace back. The address is derived from a cryptographic key, so a long random string, not a memorable brand, identifies the real server. That property is what lets a market host without exposing a location.
What does escrow actually do?
Escrow means the market holds a buyer payment instead of passing it straight to a vendor. The hold releases when the buyer confirms delivery, or through a dispute if something goes wrong. This blunts simple theft, because a vendor cannot take money and vanish mid-order. It does nothing against a market that shuts its doors and keeps every balance.
Where do PGP and Monero fit?
PGP encrypts and signs messages so an address or a note can only be read by the intended party, and so a signature proves who wrote it. Monero moves the payment while hiding the amount and the wallet. Together they cover the two leaks a plain shop would create: readable messages and a public money trail.
How it differs from a normal shop
The gap is not the products page. It is the plumbing underneath. A clearnet store wants to be found and trusted by name. A darknet market is built to be reachable without revealing where it runs or who paid.
Clearnet shop
Public domain and DNS. Hosted at a traceable IP. Card or bank payment tied to identity. Trust rides on the brand and the law behind it.
Darknet market
Onion address inside Tor. No public host to trace. Cryptocurrency payment, often Monero. Trust rides on PGP proofs and escrow, not on a name.
Questions people ask first
Is Mars a market, a planet, or a chocolate bar?
On this site, Mars is the name of a darknet marketplace reachable over Tor. It is not the planet, the confectionery brand, or the basketball club. The name overlap is coincidence and carries no connection to those entities.
What makes a market a darknet market?
It runs as a Tor hidden service instead of a normal website, settles orders through escrow, and usually asks buyers and vendors to use PGP. Payment is typically in a cryptocurrency such as Monero. The combination of anonymous hosting and escrow is what defines it.
Why is Monero common on these markets?
Monero hides amounts and addresses by default, so a public ledger does not reveal who paid whom. Bitcoin is transparent by design, which is why many markets moved settlement toward Monero.
Does escrow make a purchase safe?
No. Escrow holds funds until an order is confirmed, which lowers plain theft risk. It does not stop a market from exiting, and it does not verify that a vendor is honest or that a purchase is legal.
See the method, or read the access order
Want the editorial read on Mars against fixed criteria, or the careful steps for reaching it? Both build on the ideas here.