Ares, which was founded in the second half of 2021, is already a medium-sized darknet market that appears to have been developed from the ground up, with a distinctive site design that is quite refreshing (as it uses a “dark mode” look by default). It claims to offer approximately 7,200 postings, 160 suppliers, and 14,000 members in total. It presently has ten market mirrors and a classic, quite simple captcha system. Registering for the market is also simple, requiring simply the entry of a username and password.
Ares Market link – http://sn2sfdqay6cxztroslaxa36covrhoowe6a5xug6wlm6ek7nmeiujgvad.onion
When verifying merchants, Ares employs pretty severe, no-nonsense rules: they must have at least a 2-year prior history as a vendor on other markets, a positive feedback rate of 95% or above, and a total of 500 completed sales. They accomplish this by comparing each vendor to the database maintained by Recon, the darknet market search engine. This keeps the riff-raff out of Ares and increases the buyer’s chances of completing their order upon purchasing. In this respect, it is a buyer-oriented market, however it does recognize Featured Vendors. It also displays the most recent purchases and buyer reviews.
Product Choice
Ares has a plethora of listing categories and subcategories that are neatly listed in alphabetical order in the left panel of the main market page. This greatly simplifies the browsing experience. There are no standard item filters, but the market keeps the standard search feature. While roughly half of the market’s listings are for the same digital things that you can purchase almost anywhere (e-books, instructions, tutorials, etc.), Ares does have a rather extensive range of medicine listings divided into slightly more than 30 distinct subcategories. Cannabis-related categories are the most popular on Ares, as they are in most darknet markets.
Payment Modes
Ares employs a wallet-less, per-order escrow mechanism (known as Direct Pay), which means that purchasers do not need to pre-fund an account balance before completing a transaction. Instead, monies are delivered to a specific location upon the placement of each order and held by the market until the buyer marks it as finished. While FE status is granted to the most successful merchants, we didn’t identify anyone who had been in the market long enough to qualify. Ares accepts BTC and XMR as payment methods. Before placing a purchase, the buyer must only enter a refund address.
Ares Pros
- Large assortment of listings that are easy to browse.
- Wallet-less escrow system (Direct Pay).
- Strict vetting process for vendors.
- Supports XMR.
Ares Cons
- PGP encryption is not forced or even required.
- No BTC multisig or advanced payment options.
- Slim selection of vendors.
- Majority of listings are for generic digital items.
Ares Market url – http://sn2sfdqay6cxztroslaxa36covrhoowe6a5xug6wlm6ek7nmeiujgvad.onion
Overall, Ares appears to be a one-of-a-kind, well-designed market with many of the essential features that darknet market customers have come to anticipate in 2022. We like how they don’t use the usual user account structure for deposits and accept XMR as a payment option. It’s also fantastic that they thoroughly vet their providers. On the other hand, even though it is technically possible, this is not a market for newcomers seeking to avoid learning PGP encryption. When using Ares, we urge that all users PGP encrypt all conversations and always follow the basic principles of OpSec.
Ares Market vendor rules
- All members are expected to behave in a respectful manner to each other.
- Any form of DOX will result in a straight and permanent ban.
- Child pornography is stricly prohibited and will result in a direct ban.
- Being rude or unrespectful towards any Ares staff member may result in ban.
- Ares will end your vendor account if we suspect any form of scamming.
- Sharing contact details on your vendor profile will result in a immediate ban.
- Outside deals are also prohibited and will result in a direct ban.
- You agree to make clean and well formatted listings.
- You agree to only use original pictures of your own products.
- You agree to not share contact details through private messages.
- You agree to not impersonate another vendor and or member.
- You agree to not spam members their inbox.
- You agree to not threaten or insult any member including staff.
Please do not apply if you have anything less than 2 years experience, that can’t be verified.
And at least 95% or higher positive feedback and a total of at least 500 sales.
We will double check all Vendor waiver applications using the Recon database,
and will also double check the PGP to ensure nobody is impersonating another vendor.
Ares Market rules for buyers :
- All members are expected to behave in a respectful manner to each other.
- Any form of DOX will result in a straight and permanent ban.
- Child pornography is stricly prohibited and will result in a direct ban.
- Being rude or unrespectful towards any Ares staff member may result in ban.
- Ares will ban your buyer account if we suspect any form of scamming.
- Outside deals are also prohibited and will result in a direct ban.
- You agree to not impersonate another vendor and or member.
- You agree to not spam members their inbox.
- You agree to not threaten or insult any member including staff.
Ares Market Message Inbox Rules :
- The use of the Message Inbox is not intented for promoting.
- Sharing of contact details through the Message Inbox is strictly forbidden.
- The Message Inbox is intented for contact between Customers and Vendors.
- We have 100 accounts set up to catch Customers and Vendors in breach of any rules.