Hello everyone, I hope you are all having an amazing day. C. Aliens here, back with yet another interesting interview. You all know that Empire Market has exit scammed. It was the biggest darknet market with millions of users. Exit scams a part of the dark web eco system. As soon as a market exit scams, its users begin to join the next good market to continue their business, in this case everyone migrated to Icarus Market making it the biggest darknet market.

A few days ago i had the pleasure to meet the admin of Icarus market. He was kind enough to give us an interview. Here is the full unedited version of interview for you guys.

C. Aliens: Tell us a little about yourself and what you do?

Icarus admin: I’m an Administrator of Icarus Market, my job is to administrate the whole thing, manage technical part and do pretty much anything else that is required to securely keep the market online.

C. Aliens: Please give me a pgp signed proof with your market key so that i know you are the real admin of icarus?

Icarus admin: This interview will be signed using our PGP Key.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256  } Tell us a little about yourself and what you do?  I’m an Administrator of Icarus Market, my job is to administrate the whole thing, manage technical part and do pretty much anything else that is required to securely keep the market online.  } Please give me a pgp signed proof with your market key so that i know you are the real admin of icarus?  This interview will be signed using our PGP Key.  } Can you tell about the history of Icarus  The development of Icarus started in mid 2019. We realized that the DNM ecosystem was fragile and old dated so we decided to start our own project knowing that we had the skills to keep up with the current expectations and possibility to implement new interesting features which would be very useful for users and the vendors in the future. We launched 4 months ago so far and since then we had 3 big updates introducing many useful features like XMPP notifications, bulk pricing and more. Of course there will be more but in order to do it right we need time to test it and make sure it’s safe to use so stay tuned.  } What makes Icarus distinct from the so many other markets?  Most of the current markets have the same old dated concept that is being used for years without actually doing anything new. Here at Icarus we aim at simplicity but we also aim to shake things a bit and implement new interesting features that would be exclusive in comparison with other markets. We already implemented plenty of suggestions from our vendors / users and we’re not planning to stop. Don’t forget that we also have very fast support and in most cases all it takes for the ticket to be solved is usually few hours but sometimes it might take longer like 24 hours depending on the case.  } I see that icarus is growing at an impressive rate which is rarely seen, Tell us the secret of your success?  Teamwork would be the best explanation for it but we have someone who works for us in the shadows, someone who is experienced in what he do and he does take care of the whole marketing part including logistics and psychology aspects so a big part of our success might be actually him.  } How much profit is your market currently making? i know you guys are working hard for the market doing endless hours  All I can say that we make enough to keep the project going.  } What about the markets features – what makes it safe to use / better than the others?  We have team of talented people who know what they are doing so that’s why we were able to take care of powerful DDoS attack that was hunting us for quite some time. We keep things simple and test things regularly so I believe that’s both of the reasons why our security is actually practical and very hard to penetrate.  } Nowadays every other market is having a hard time to maintime a decent uptime due to ddos attacks by various shady actors / rival markets. What are you doing to protect your market from these ddos attacks?  Already answered in previous question.  } I see that you guys aren't using end game filter? Why is that?  Using the endgame filter is not the only option to stop an attack.  } What is the vision of your market? Do you plan an early exit scam or you want to stay here for a long time?  We plan to stay as long as possible and get higher in the ranking, obviously.  } Do you have any connection with the now defunct Avaris market? A few weeks ago a market admin told me that you guys are the same team that was behind avaris thats why you have too much money and advertising heavily to  make your market successful. He also said that you will exit scam and repeat this process again. What are your thoughts about this?  Nope, it’s all disinformation campaign. As you might’ve already noticed Dread closed registration process because their captcha has been broken and with just a bunch of aged accounts it’s quite easy to manipulate people’s decisions and vote down posts that are not convenient for other markets or even individuals – just like in politics.  } Recently a known vendor accused you of doing an exit scam and created a lot of drama? Can you tell us what really happened?  A little drama and a bug from our side, the whole thing has been already solved.  } What is the number of current staff at icarus? How many people are handling disputes and tickets?  We have 3 staff members who take care of tickets and disputes.  } Do you have any security staff available to answer to critical bug reports related to the security of Icarus? Has icarus's platform been tested for security holes?  Yes, we do have people who do that plus we have bug bounty program. We also did penetration tests (by someone not from our team) and we are doing regular tests to keep things secure and hard to penetrate.  } Why did you created a dnm and chose to work as a dnm operator? why not a regular job and a family life? Are you not afraid of getting busted by le?  Working in some capitalism company who does not care about users but only profits? Not interested.  } Can you tell me about some interesting / funny or scary experiences you had as a market employee with buyers or vendors?  Each individual is different and has different life story so you can met some nice or crazy people just like in real life. Nothing else to add here.  } Got any Tip for the market users to make their stay and usage safer?  Yes, use tor bridges to make yourself less visible as Tor user for your ISP and always encrypt your address using your own PGP key, don’t use online services to do that for you.  } Anything else we did not mention that you would like to add?  Yes, thank you for your time to interview us. 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C. Aliens: Can you tell about the history of Icarus

Icarus admin: The development of Icarus started in mid 2019. We realized that the DNM ecosystem was fragile and old dated so we decided to start our own project knowing that we had the skills to keep up with the current expectations and possibility to implement new interesting features which would be very useful for users and the vendors in the future. We launched 4 months ago so far and since then we had 3 big updates introducing many useful features like XMPP notifications, bulk pricing and more. Of course there will be more but in order to do it right we need time to test it and make sure it’s safe to use so stay tuned.

C. Aliens: What makes Icarus distinct from the so many other markets?

Icarus admin: Most of the current markets have the same old dated concept that is being used for years without actually doing anything new. Here at Icarus we aim at simplicity but we also aim to shake things a bit and implement new interesting features that would be exclusive in comparison with other markets. We already implemented plenty of suggestions from our vendors / users and we’re not planning to stop. Don’t forget that we also have very fast support and in most cases all it takes for the ticket to be solved is usually few hours but sometimes it might take longer like 24 hours depending on the case.

C. Aliens: I see that icarus is growing at an impressive rate which is rarely seen, Tell us the secret of your success?

Icarus admin: Teamwork would be the best explanation for it but we have someone who works for us in the shadows, someone who is experienced in what he do and he does take care of the whole marketing part including logistics and psychology aspects so a big part of our success might be actually him.

C. Aliens: How much profit is your market currently making? i know you guys are working hard for the market doing endless hours

Icarus admin: All I can say that we make enough to keep the project going.

C. Aliens: What about the markets features – what makes it safe to use / better than the others?

Icarus admin: We have team of talented people who know what they are doing so that’s why we were able to take care of powerful DDoS attack that was hunting us for quite some time. We keep things simple and test things regularly so I believe that’s both of the reasons why our security is actually practical and very hard to penetrate.

C. Aliens: Nowadays every other market is having a hard time to maintime a decent uptime due to ddos attacks by various shady actors / rival markets. What are you doing to protect your market from these ddos attacks?

Icarus admin: Already answered in previous question.

C. Aliens: I see that you guys aren’t using end game filter? Why is that?

Icarus admin: Using the endgame filter is not the only option to stop an attack.

C. Aliens: What is the vision of your market? Do you plan an early exit scam or you want to stay here for a long time?

Icarus admin: We plan to stay as long as possible and get higher in the ranking, obviously.

C. Aliens: Do you have any connection with the now defunct Avaris market? A few weeks ago a market admin told me that you guys are the same team that was behind avaris thats why you have too much money and advertising heavily to make your market successful. He also said that you will exit scam and repeat this process again. What are your thoughts about this?

Icarus admin: Nope, it’s all disinformation campaign. As you might’ve already noticed Dread closed registration process because their captcha has been broken and with just a bunch of aged accounts it’s quite easy to manipulate people’s decisions and vote down posts that are not convenient for other markets or even individuals – just like in politics.

C. Aliens: Recently a known vendor accused you of doing an exit scam and created a lot of drama? Can you tell us what really happened?

Icarus admin: A little drama and a bug from our side, the whole thing has been already solved.

C. Aliens: What is the number of current staff at icarus? How many people are handling disputes and tickets?

Icarus admin: We have 3 staff members who take care of tickets and disputes.

C. Aliens: Do you have any security staff available to answer to critical bug reports related to the security of Icarus? Has icarus’s platform been tested for security holes?

Icarus admin: Yes, we do have people who do that plus we have bug bounty program. We also did penetration tests (by someone not from our team) and we are doing regular tests to keep things secure and hard to penetrate.

C. Aliens: Why did you created a dnm and chose to work as a dnm operator? why not a regular job and a family life? Are you not afraid of getting busted by le?

Icarus admin: Working in some capitalism company who does not care about users but only profits? Not interested.

C. Aliens: Can you tell me about some interesting / funny or scary experiences you had as a market employee with buyers or vendors?

Icarus admin: Each individual is different and has different life story so you can met some nice or crazy people just like in real life. Nothing else to add here.

C. Aliens: Got any Tip for the market users to make their stay and usage safer?

Icarus admin: Yes, use tor bridges to make yourself less visible as Tor user for your ISP and always encrypt your address using your own PGP key, don’t use online services to do that for you.

C. Aliens: Anything else we did not mention that you would like to add?

Icarus admin: Yes, thank you for your time to interview us. We appreciate it.

——Interview Ends——

I hope you have enjoyed reading the interview as much as I did doing it. Let me know what do you think about them in the comments sections below.

Yours truly,
C. Aliens