This World Market review will dissect World Market to its core. With new markets coming up each day, it may be tough picking a market actually worth your time, right?
Well, we aren’t saying you should pick World Market. But, going through this piece will sure help you understand the features, potential and problems with World Market.
For now, we’re answering the following questions:
- Is world market anonymous?
- What products are (and aren’t) available on World Market?
- How can you pay on World Market?
- Does World Market have an autoshop?
- Is World Market wallet-less?
- Does World Market accept independent sellers?
- Is World Market transparent about its vendor histories?
- Is World Market secure?
Going through this World Market review you’ll have a first-hand experience of the market, without actually having to visit it yourself.
World Market overview
What’s the market made up of? Let’s list those pillars right here?
- Onion URL:
- Payment mode: BTC only.
- Founded on: November 2020.
- Wallet-less: No
- Security features: 2-FA/ Mnemonic/ PIN
- Autoshop: Yes
Interesting, isn’t it? Let’s get going then?
Is World Market anonymous?
On any darknet market, the first and most important question is your anonymity, isn’t it? Even when you’re not buying or selling, anonymity still matters.
Fortunately, World Market is as anonymous as it can be. The registration for starters is instant, anonymous (no personal details required) and free.
The market also doesn’t store any logs. All deposit/withdrawal and trade histories are deleted within 7 days.
So, rest assured, our identities wouldn’t be compromised (unless we leave loopholes from our end.)
What products are (and aren’t) available on World Market?
What products do you expect to be available? Obviously, it sells the usual products any illegal marketplace on the dark web would sell.
The list includes:
- Drugs
- Digital Goods
- Fraud
- Counterfeit items
- And Services.
As of today, it has around 700 individual listings (the number was less than 600 just yesterday.)
The “Drugs” category offers products such as Cannabis, Stimulants, Opioids, Stimulants, Prescriptions etc.
You can find software, exploits, botnets, malware etc. in the “Digital Goods” category. The “Fraud” category will sell you cards, bank logins, dumps and basically other financial or money related items.
Then there’s the “Counterfeit”; selling money, jewellery and other forgeries. Even if you need fake documents, those too are available. Both in physical (shipped) and digital (e-mailed) forms!
It’s illegal, but not completely without a moral compass. Which is why the marketplace has prohibited the trade of any items related to:
- Illegal porn
- Weapons
- Prostitution
- Or killing services.
How can you pay on World Market?
The traditional Bitcoin is what’s used to make payments here. Unfortunately, no other Cryptocurrencies are accepted for now.
Now, this has its pros and cons. The obvious con is “less options”. However, not all of you reading this World Market review are crypto experts now, are you? Hence, by limiting options, the market makes sure you don’t end up using a less secure coin for payments.
In order for the payments to be registered, they must reach 2 confirmations. That’s the World Market confirmation requirement.
Does World Market have an autoshop?
Yes, it totally does. We personally believe darknet markets should have autoshops. Waiting for a vendor’s approval for basic products is just a time-killer, isn’t it?
So, World Market sells “Credit Cards” and “Accounts” via its autoshop. At the time of writing this World Market review, the autoshop isn’t functional. It has listings, but, it just doesn’t work yet. It probably will by the time you read this piece.
It also has an in-built card checker which makes sure you aren’t scammed with dead cards. The check-time is 1 hour for cards and accounts.
The process is automated. The checker decides if the card is “positive” or “dead”. If it’s positive, you’re charged, if it’s dead, you’re refunded. Simple, right?
Is World Market wallet-less?
Unfortunately, no. It isn’t a wallet-less market. If you’re new, this means you can’t buy a product without first depositing funds to your World Market wallet.
It isn’t a major problem though. Most other darknet markets aren’t wallet-less either. However, “storing” coins on the market is a risk as the market may exit-scam at any moment.
To solve that, the market facilitates withdrawals. You can withdraw your funds at any time without any threshold requirement.
So, once a purchase has been made, if any leftover funds exist in the wallet, they can be withdrawn. These withdrawals however aren’t free and cost 0.5%/transaction.
However, on the withdrawal page, you’d also see a link to a third-party Bitcoin mixer. The mixer is officially recommended by World Market. What it’ll do is, convert your Bitcoins to Monero before sending you the funds.
This basically boosts your anonymity, and makes sure the funds can’t be linked to World Market, or your deposit on the market.
Does World Market accept independent sellers?
It totally does. The market allows anyone to sell, as long as they pay a $250.00 vendor-fee. This fee is non-refundable.
In our personal opinion, this is a desirable factor for vendors, but a downer for buyers. The low vendor-fee lets scammers join the market as vendors and scam buyers.
Sure, the marketplace escrow protects buyers. However, we personally prefer markets with a higher vendor-fee. But hey, that’s really a personal choice.
Is World Market transparent about its vendor histories?
This is a personal “security metric” that we’ve developed for reviewing marketplaces. Any marketplace which lets us verify a vendor’s “history” gets in our good books.
Fortunately, World Market does. You can click on a vendor’s username and it will show the following:
- Age as a vendor
- Positive/negative/neutral feedback
- Level of the vendor
- Disputes (won & lost)
- Ratings from other marketplaces.
This lets buyers verify a vendor’s legitimacy. Any vendor with more negative reviews than positive, or, more lost disputes than won is a red flag, right?
Also, the total sales made by a vendor on any of his/her products too are shown on the product-page. Any product with a high number of sales is probably legitimate and of quality, right?
Do note that similar data is also shown for buyer-profiles. The market doesn’t discriminate. It lets vendors decide who they sell and don’t sell to as well. Buyers can be scammers as well, right?
Is World Market secure?
Now, this question has two sides. First, “Is world market secure from hackers?”. And then, “Is world market secure for trades?”.
So, anti-hacker features. Which of those does the market offer? The following:
- 2-FA via PGP
- Security PIN
- Mnemonic code.
- Auto-logout
Well, for starters, you can set 2-FA via PGP. This is mandatory for vendors! It’s a bit complex but totally worth it.
If you enable 2-FA via PGP, just your password wouldn’t let you login. You’d also need to decrypt a PGP-signed message on the login page.
Then, the market lets us set a security PIN during registrations. It’s primarily used for withdrawals. Without this, the funds in your account can’t be withdrawn even with your password.
And third, the market offers a “mnemonic code”. It’s the account recovery code (we’re sure you know what it does, right?)
The market also recently implemented this auto-logout feature. When logging in, a user can set an “inactivity time”. After the user/account is inactive for this period, it’s automatically logged out. The available time-frames are 20 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours.
Now, for the second question we asked earlier on this World Market review. Is it secure for trades?
Well, the market is primarily an “escrow” service. This offers mutual guarantee that no party scams the other.
Also, the market does provide “Finalize-Early” (F.E) privileges. This is the non-Escrow, instant mode of trades.
How is it a security feature? Well, any vendor who has F.E enabled (a badge is shown) is trustworthy, legitimate and has proven his/her authenticity to the market. F.E isn’t just handed out at random. And, hence it’s a security feature for buyers.
Final verdict
So, is World Market the next big thing in the industry? It’s too soon for now. It may be, it may not be, it may exit-scam, it may go on to become the most authentic market for the next decade, who knows?
However, from what we’ve seen so far, it does seem serious about its future. There sure are a ton of areas for improvement. But, the existing features are totally desirable.
Bottomline? It can’t hurt to give the marketplace a try (only for educational/research) purposes. It’s secure, it accepts BTC, has a low withdrawal fee and is transparent.
And that’ll be all for this World Market review folks. Do check back in a few weeks, we’ll update this piece with its then-current stats.