What is Abacus Market?
Abacus Market is a well established Dark Web market that has been around for many years. It offers a wide variety of different products, ranging from all kinds of drug related items, digital goods, counterfeit items and much more.
To be able to browse the market, you will need to register an account first. To do so, you need to jump through various hoops containing captchas but fortunately they are easily solvable and should be no hinderance. Once you have signed up (no registration fee necessary), you have access to all features of Abacus Market.
One of the best features is the extended search: You can search for offers from specific vendors and can use advanced filters such as the origin country of to which countries it ships to. You can also choose the accepted payment (generally, Abacus accepts Bitcoin and Monero). Abacus is also one of the few markets that provides its own user forum so should you have any questions, chances are that community members are able to help you.
As of mid 2023, Abacus has one of the largest product portfolios of currently available darknet markets so you should definitely check it out.
Security Recommendations
Same as with all darknet sites the usual security recommendations apply. Most importantly: stay anonymous. Use the TOR browser only and don’t use the TOR browser for any regular (non-darknet) browsing.
Before visiting the site with the TOR browser, you should switch off JavaScript (Options -> Privacy & Security -> Security Level -> Switch to “Safest”). Abacus is explicitly designed so that you don’t need JavaScript which allows you to increase your security by switching it off.
Ideally, you have a dedicated system or at least a dedicated VM for all your darknet activities. Keep your darknet PGP keys and other credentials limited to that system only, do not mix it with any activities that would expose your identity.
Treat your dedicated system like a work-system: Only install the software necessary for your operations do not install anything for entertainment or other purposes. Subsequently, resist the urge to browse Twitter, Reddit or any other social media sites while you have downtime. For this always use your regular system.
For additional system security, we recommend you run a secure operating system like Tails or Whonix on your dedicated system for darknet activities. We also recommend using a VPN as an additional security measure since TOR will only anonymize your browsing sessions but not other traffic.
Especially when using any public WiFi hotspots you should always use a VPN when accessing the Internet since you don’t know whether the access point is compromised. A VPN ensures that all of your traffic, no matter what application, will always be strongly encrypted when passing the access point, this protecting yourself not only from eavesdropping but also possible identity theft.
Abacus Market Summary
Abacus is a great market site for browsing around and finding products you may not find otherwise. The operators are veterans in the scene and have experience running a service like this. If you want to find the cheapest possible deal on the darknet, you should definitely add Abacus to your list of sites to check as they often have the best offers available. As always, when visiting any darknet market make sure to only use trusted links, such as the onion link for Abacus Market on the top right.