For the last five days, AlphaBay customers have been puzzled over the status of the darknet market after several Reddit users started reporting not being able log in, facing difficulties with 2-FA that were triggered by an expired PGP canary. Users who could log in were not able to generate new XMR deposit addresses, and concerns over the whereabouts of DeSnake are mounting as the admin enters his fifth week of absence.
AlphaBay remains accessible for at least some users, although a message in the wallet menu of AlphaBay currently displays the following when attempting to generate a new address:
“ERROR: Admin must do the monthly canary to enable the signing of deposit addresses/PGP login messages. The error is not critical but please alert us through support ticket if you see this to make sure an administrator signs the monthly canary to prove control of the AlphaBay infrastructure.”
According to instructions provided by the market, deposit addresses are only good for two days, suggesting that non-verifiable addresses should not be used at present. As of Friday, Feb. 10th, market users were being presented with unsigned addresses but were being discouraged from making deposits on Reddit and elsewhere until the situation became clearer.
A warning at the top of dark.fail indicates that AlphaBay is not accepting deposits “due to an expired admin canary,” although this information was questioned by some of the market’s users on Reddit.
“The canary is up to date, that is not the issue at hand, as thought before. Nonetheless, the 2fa issue requires DeSnake (head honcho) to log on to fix it (nothing needs to be ‘fixed’. As far as I’m aware it’s a security protocol where they need his clearance level to sign off on it)… But as of right now DeSnakes phone is off – and other admins are making statements such as ‘we can only hope he decided to go to Disney world/camping trip for the week & turned his phone off’.
It’s a very very simple fix. But the fact is, DeSnake might not log in for 1 hour or 1 week. I believe we are good & it’s as simple as that. Deposits & withdrawals have been successful for non 2fa accounts…
I suggest people cancel – withdraw – and locate what you’re looking for elsewhere for now. For those who are able to of course.” – u/Boblegal on Reddit
Since its rebirth in August 2021, AlphaBay has gone into a similar lockdown mode upon expiration of DeSnake’s canary at least three times in the past, occurring in July, August, and October of last year. The lockdown prevented users from logging in as the market’s 2-FA system was disabled. DeSnake’s last noticeable absence was in October when he failed to sign in to either AlphaBay or Dread for over three weeks.
On Reddit, users with open orders were being reminded that the countdown to order finalization is paused when the market goes into lockdown mode, meaning buyers will still have a chance to make a dispute if a product they ordered did not arrive.
The main AlphaBay URL for Tor is unreachable, although some users say their private Tor links are working. The market is currently reachable on the I2P network for all users.
We suggest users to check other darknet markets until and if AlphaBay Market comes back.