What is Sipuli Market?
Sipuli is the largest Finnish darknet market site and was created in early 2018, just after Silkkitie (Finnish Silk Road) went down. It was thought as an alternative to Silkkitie since the disappearance of that market left a big gap, especially noticeable in the Scandinavian market. If the market site is up, you can find the onion link for Sipuli Market to the right of this article.
The founder of the site built a strong community around his site, giving it some extra credibility due to its local (Finnish) nature. Of course, the disadvantage is that there is no English language version available but you could argue that as a benefit: Not providing the English language reduces the number of trolls and untrustworthy buyers and sellers by great amounts.
At the same time, the Finnish language will not deter serious customers as it is not difficult (only inconvenient) to use Google translate to make sense of all the categories and offers.
What You Need
Other than the language, Silkkitie is very similar to the big English speaking darknet market sites. The products are sorted into different categories for easy access. Like most markets, Sipuli is primarily focused on drugs of all kinds but you can also find some digital items and credit card information.
Like most other darknet market sites, Sipuli provides an escrow system where funds are stored until a trade is marked as complete. This protects buyers as well as sellers from scams. Because of the escrow system, no direct communication is required between buyers and sellers on this site. Disputes are covered by its own policy which automatically overrides any contradicting vendor policy.
Once a listed item has been purchased, the seller has 72 hours to mark the item as shipped. If that does not happen, the order will be canceled automatically and the buyer gets a refund. Once an order has marked as shipped, the buyer can either finalize the order (if he received it) or extend the order (for instance if the seller notified the buyer of a delay). Lastly, the order can be disputed if it is not received which will decrease the seller’s trust level. Now that if you want to mark an order as a dispute you will have to do that manually within 14 days of the purchase or the order will finalize automatically.
For vendors, the typical restrictions regarding certain offers apply: It is not allowed to sell any firearms or child pornography. Neither is it allowed to offer prostitution or murder services. Additionally, it is a bannable offense to post any personal information about other people (doxing).
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”). Cannazon 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](https://tails.boum.org/) or [https://www.whonix.org/](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.
Summary
Sipuli is not only a great market site for native Finnish speakers but also for those who are hunting for the cheapest prices: While it may cost extra work to run the site through a translator you may be able to find offers that you can’t find anywhere else, because they are limited to the local darknet market in Finland. If you’re hunting for the best possible price, definitely check out Sipuli market. As always, when visiting any darknet market make sure to only use trusted links, such as the onion link for Sipuli Market on the top right.