What is Cosmos Market?
Cosmos Market is a relatively new darknet market site with a vast array of different products. While the majority of offers are listed in the drugs category, you can find various other darknet related purchases as well: Fraud related items, guides and tutorials, carded items, counterfeit products, id cards and other documents as well as a few other off-beat products.
A special feature of Cosmos Market is that the site is offered in four different languages: English, Spanish, Russian and Hindi. You can switch the language via the menu option on the top. The market is relatively new and the administrators explicitly ask for suggestions to make the market better – so if you ever wanted to get involved in a darknet market site, this is the place to go.
Cosmos accepts bitcoin, monero and litecoin as currencies and also acts as escrow service with a 5% commission rate. Under the featured products you can sometimes find special sales with reduced prices – a good reason to visit this site frequently as these offers are time limited.
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”). Cosmos Market 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.
Cosmos Market Summary
While Cosmos is a relatively new darknet market, it sure shows promise already. The product portfolio is already relatively large and new offers are constantly being added. On top of that, the site has a very simple interface, it just tends to load a bit slow at times. In summary, Cosmos Market is a site you should keep an eye on in the future as it could become one of the larger markets of the future.