Mega Dark-Net Market - The new Russian king

Mega dark-net market is a Russian marketplace that has been around for a while. Since its launch in 2016 the market did not experience much growth, but this changed quickly. For ages, Hydra was the largest marketplace, dominating over 70% of the Russian market. After the recent seizure of Hydra, Mega started to skyrocket in popularity.

About Mega Market

Mega market is currently on track to become the largest dark-net marketplace in Russia. At the moment, it has over 2600 active sellers. This growth comes as a surprise, as there are new, better, Russian markets. Despite being a simple marketplace with an old design, being around since 2016 earns you a reputation. This is likely the main factor contributing to the rapid rise in Mega's popularity.

Design & Interface

The markets design hasn't changed much since its launch in 2016. It looks outdated by today's standard, and reminds your of a dark-net market from 2014. The interface on the other hand is very basic and straight forward to use. A top bar contains a catalogue option that displays all the products, and a shop option that displays different stores. An advanced filter query can be found with a built in search bar can be found bellow the bar.

Features & Security

Being a basic market-place, Mega surprisingly manages to pack in a lot of features. Taking a page from Hydra's book, Mega market supports instant transactions. Sellers can place their product around the city, and a buyer can instantly receive the coordinates to find it. Transactions can be paid using bitcoin and monero. A built in wallet is present, with no support for direct deposit transactions. Traditional escrow support is also present. Mega also features an exchange that allows users to exchange bitcoin for monero as it is better for privacy. PGP encryption support is present and can be used for messages, and 2FA login.

Conclusion

Mega dark-net market is an old and trusted marketplace in the Russian dark-net community. Being around for over 7 years it comes as no surprise that people are picking it over other markets now that Hydra is gone. Taking into consideration Hydras 17 millions users, the spot left to fill is huge. If Mega is expected to take that spot, major upgrades have to be done to fix the outdated design.