About DarkFail
Why this exists
DarkFail started around 2017 because people kept losing money and accounts to lookalike onions. Search engines and social channels were (and still are) terrible at this: the first result is often a clone, and the “helpful” chat user with a fresh link is rarely helpful.
We keep a conservative list—status, last URL we believe belongs to the project, and a bit of context. That’s it. No vendor scorecards for hire, no paid placement, no “featured market of the week.”
How the list is maintained
Someone on the team re-checks reachability and compares notes against prior fingerprints. When a host dies we mark it dead instead of silently swapping in the first replacement URL that appears on a forum. Replacements need corroboration. That makes us slower than mirror spam sites, which is fine.
Descriptions on market pages are research notes, not endorsements. A live badge only means the listed address answered when we last checked—not that you should use the service, or that it’s safe, or that it will still be there next week.
Who’s behind it
A small group of people who got tired of watching the same phishing patterns recycle every year. We stay low-profile on purpose. You won’t get a face, a company registration plaque, or a Discord with nitro roles. Operational details that don’t help readers verify links stay offline.
Privacy stance
We try not to collect more than a typical static site needs. Don’t send us personal data “just in case.” Don’t paste order IDs, home addresses, or wallet seeds into Jabber. If you contact us, assume the channel can be logged on your side or ours and write accordingly.
Contact channels (summary)
Primary support / tips: Jabber [email protected] (OTR preferred once the session is established).
Press / research only: [email protected] — slow queue, no market “partnerships.”
Full PGP block and server notes live on the contact page. If a key fingerprint doesn’t match what you’ve seen from us before, stop and re-check from a bookmarked page—don’t accept a “new key” from a random PM.
What we won’t do
- Broker deals, escrow, or dispute resolution for third-party markets
- Recover accounts, coins, or packages
- Sell “verified vendor” badges
- Answer “which market is best for X” shopping questions
If that list is disappointing, you’re looking for a different kind of site. We’re the boring checklist people open before they trust a URL.