Empire is a darknet market launched in February 2018.
Modeled after the seized AlphaBay market, the marketplace offers products in the following categories; fraud, drugs & chemicals, guides, counterfeit items, digital products, jewels & gold, carded items, software, security, and hosting services among others.
Even though the site deals with illicit products, it has banned the sale of fentanyl and terrorist activities, and vendors found engaging in the businesses will have their account suspended.
Empire was initially designed to accept only Litecoin as a payment option. But ever since its launch, the marketplace has operated under the slogan 'If we need it, add it' and, in turn, implemented a wide range of features.
Since Empire was modeled after AlphaBay, its main aim was to become the biggest market. This seems to be happening as Empire is among the most reputable sites on the dark web today.
Despite the challenges facing markets, Empire continues to serve the community diligently. In its time, the site has witnessed the fall of notable markets such as Dream, Wallstreet, Olympus, and Valhalla, among others.
In one instance, Nightmare, a market which was established after Empire grew to surpass it in listings and customer base, but pulled an exit scam before a year in service.
Hacks
Just like any other site on the dark web, Empire market has had its share of multiple hacks that have caused the marketplace to experience significant downtime.
Starting the second quarter of 2019, a majority of the top darknet markets and forums were faced with DDoS attacks that pushed the offline for hours and even days.
The issue was not on the side of the markets, but with Tor. Some markets were very inconvenienced that some of them made large donations towards Tor to fix the problem.
This, in turn, pushed the site admins to regularly come up with multiple .onion links from time to time to contain the situation and enable their users to access the market.
The situation was put under control, but Empire continues updating its links to ensure users are not heavily affected by DDoS attacks.
Updated mirrors can be found on DarkDotFail immediately they are up, and market users are advised to take extra precautions by getting links from verified sources because phishing links are a significant problem.
Summary of Market Updates
Feb 11, 2018: Adding Bitcoin as a mode of payment
Feb 27, 2018: Integrating Monero
Mar 04, 2018: Implementation of Bitcoin 2 of 3 MultiSig for increased security
Jul 07, 2018: Launch of an autoshop for those seeking to buy Fullz
Jul 11, 2018: Checker added to the autoshop to verify the validity of credit cards
Jul 22, 2018: More features added to the autoshop so users could buy Paypal, RDP, OTT and other accounts from the vendors
Oct 12, 2018: Introduction of a Lottery system at the cost of $1, and the winner would get 0.45622 BTC equivalent of $ 3000.
Jan 31, 2019: Empire celebrates the first anniversary and thanks their users for the support
Mar 01, 2019: Autoshop redesigned to have a better search interface as well as to randomize data
May 28, 2019: Updates on bitcoin deposit functions
Notable Features
Two Factor Authentication (2FA): This adds an additional layer of security to the user's account. To set up 2FA, one needs to have their Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) key setup.
Two Factor Authentication (2FA): This adds an additional layer of security to the user's account. To set up 2FA, one needs to have their Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) key setup.
Affiliate Program: Market users can make use of the affiliate program by the market to earn additional income after any purchase made from their referral.
Payment options include Litecoin, Bitcoin and Monero.
Rating system involves a Vendor level and Trust level, where one is the lowest in each case and ten the highest.
Lottery System that costs $1 to join.
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