Mirror Rotation and DDoS: What Users Actually See
Markets rotate onions under abuse pressure. Dead links are normal; random replacements are not.
Multi-mirror setups exist because single onions get hammered. DDoS, targeted abuse, and hosting churn force rotations. A URL that worked last month can 404 this week without the market being “exit scammed.”
Healthy rotation vs phishing
- Healthy: several known mirrors, some slow, some dead, staff eventually publish a signed update
- Phishing: a stranger’s “only working link,” especially during an outage spike
User checklist
- Try the other mirrors on Markets before believing “the market is gone”
- Prefer PGP-signed canaries over screenshots
- Do not accept a brand-new onion that shares no characters with your saved set