What is Ares Market?
Ares Market is a relatively new market on the darknet that offers a vast array of different products. You will find your typical drug selection but there is also a wide variety of other products such as credit card data, dumps and personal ID scans (such as UniCC and Joker’s Stash list) – so if you are looking for these kinds of items, this is one more site that should be in your bookmarks. If the market site is up, you can find the onion link for Ares Market on top of this article.
Unlike most markets, Ares does not require you to fund a site-bound wallet: Ares Market is a wallet-less site that supports full direct pay employing an escrow system. At the moment the supported currencies are Bitcoin and Monero. All vendors selling on Ares are vetted and verified by the Ares staff; they also do product screenings against scams.
Any sensitive information coming from Ares Market, such as delivery details will be automatically PGP encrypted. So before you buy anything you should add a designated PGP key for this purpose.
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”). Ares 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.
Ares Market Summary
Ares Market is one of the best all-purpose markets around. Few sites have such a variety of products and are so easy to use. As an additional plus, there is no need to deposit any crypto currencies into a wallet since all purchases are direct pay via an escrow system. If markets with a wide variety of products are what you are usually browsing it (such as Darkbay), Ares Market is definitely a site you should check out. As always, when visiting any darknet market make sure to only use trusted links, such as the onion link for Ares Market on the top.