White House Market is a newer market to come on the scene, eagerly picking up vendors and customers from Dream Market and any of the several other markets that have gone down over the last two years. They have risen quickly in size and as a result, frequently suffer through DDOS attacks and growing pains associated with increased strain on their infrastructure. They are one of the first markets to insist on end-to-end PGP encryption for user communication. This can be bothersome at times but reflective of their dedication to good OPSEC practices.
Speaking of OPSEC, it wasn’t too long ago that White House became a Monero-only market. Due to privacy concerns, and having learned from the fates of other markets, White House ditched support for Bitcoin in late 2020, leaving XMR the only means of payment. This represents a level of commitment to remaining as private as possible and is likely also a good thing for its users — even if it means they have to go out and buy Monero.
Compared to most other markets, White House Market is huge in size. If you go by the numbers they provide, White House has close to 3,000 vendors, 500,000 users and 38,000 listings. Regardless of how accurate these numbers are, White House is big enough and has been around for long enough to ward off suspicions that they may one day run an exit scam. The reason behind this thinking being business is already incredibly lucrative for them with a 4% commission on every sale, so why would they ruin a good thing? It could still happen of course but compared to other markets currently operating the chances seem slim.
White House is a bit old fashioned in that they used to have user account wallets up until recently. They are still transitioning out of the account wallet model and towards a “pay per model” order. Their captcha alternative can be a bit tricky and it’s normal to take 2 or 3 tries before satisfying it. We acknowledge that White House Market is trying its hardest to scale to demand while navigating DDOS attacks and threats from LE, which is no easy task. For the moment they seem to be one of the best darknet market options out there and have no problems recommending them to our readers.
Quick Facts about White House Market
- Official URL: i6gu5hzeen34ocbtmc724oeovrmw6ytifr2zokkyv3nbovooacslqbid.onion
- Founded: 2020
- Number of listings: ~40,000
- Listing categories: Drugs, Online Business, Software, Services, Forgeries/Counterfeits, Defense/Counter Intel
- Coins accepted: Monero (XMR)
- Multisignature escrow: No
- Finalize Early (FE) Allowed: Yes
- Vendor bond: $1,000
Before Getting Started
Before attempting to use White House Market or any darknet market, it is important to have at least a basic understanding of the following:
- how to operate a Tor browser,
- how to transact Monero (XMR), and
- how to create a PGP key pair, encrypt/decrypt messages using PGP, and verify signatures.
If you don’t know how to use PGP keys, you may as well stop and learn now, because you won’t even be able to browse the market until you have successfully attached a PGP public key to your White House account. They are uniquely strict in this way but ultimately it is to the benefit of everybody involved.
An easy reccommended PGP tool can be found here.
As far as using Monero is concerned, make sure you know how to make a transaction before attempting to send XMR to your account. Don’t send XMR straight to the market from an exchange as this potentially creates a direct link between the market and your identity. Instead, send XMR to a personal wallet from the exchange first, and then make the transfer to your White House Market account.
After your Tor browser has been installed with the latest version, make sure to disable JavaScript in your browser settings, or else you will not be able to log in to White House Market. Conveniently, the market will make you aware of this upon visiting it, if your JavaScript is indeed still enabled, and provides similar instructions on how to disable it:
1. Type “about:config” into your address bar.
2. Proceed through the warning and then click “Show All” to bring up configuration options.
3. Search for preference “javascript”.
4. Set “javscript.enabled” option to “false”.
You will now be ready to visit the market.
How to Register an Account
Accessing White House market can be a bit tricky sometimes as the main website is frequently under DDOS attack. Ways to avoid this include accessing the market using a verified mirror — and by “verified” mirror, we mean a link accompanied by a PGP signed message or vouched for like a trusted source like darkfail.
After connecting to a valid market URL, you will notice that the market’s “Splash Page” is a couple of warnings that encourage you to download and import the White House public key. This can be used to verify whether messages accompanying links are sent by the actual market and not an impostor. When visiting the site for the first time, be sure to follow all the steps on the page, if only to practice your PGP verifications skills and confirm you are indeed using a valid mirror.
1. After reading the splash page, press the blue “Proceed” button at the bottom of the screen. You will be advanced to the login screen. To get started creating an account, click the blue “Sign up now” link at the bottom of the screen. The account creation screen looks like this:
2. Creating an account is quite simple and only requires creating a username and password. Because there are so many users, you will have to come up with a unique username (which is a good idea anyway to distance your account from your IRL identity). As far as a password is concerned, it’s a good idea to use at least 8 characters — a random combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, along with at least one number and symbol is highly recommended. Hit “Submit” after everything looks good to you.
3. If your username is not taken, you will be directed to a Login page where you will be asked to enter your username and password to log in. Note that you can also set the login idle time from this screen, which is the amount of time your account can remain idle before you are automatically logged out. Press “Login” to continue.
4. You’ll notice that the first screen you arrive at contains relevant news and updates. This is pretty much essential information which can make your market experience easier and is perhaps valuable to your own security as well. After you’re done reading the update messages, click the blue “Close” button at the bottom of the screen. This will bring you to the main Welcome screen where you can view product listings, vendors, and everything else:
5. As you can see from the warning message hanging between the title menu area and the category listing counts, the next step in setting up your account will be attaching your PGP public key to your account. This will allow other users to send you encrypted messages, which is essential for communication during orders. To do this, hover over your username up in the title menu bar, between the time and your XMR balance, and click on the “Your PGP Key” entry.
Here you can paste your public PGP key which other members can use to encrypt messages sent to you. Simply enter your key in the box below and then press “Submit”. The screen should look something like this when correctly filled:
7. As is the case with most darknet markets, you will need to prove ownership of the public key by decrypting a message containing a special code. The decrypted code is to be used to add your PGP key on White House Market, and looks something like this when entered:
After verifying the code, your PGP key will be added to your account, and you can now start using the market.
Making a Deposit
White House Market recently switched their payment modes from a traditional “account wallet” setup to a “pay per order” setup. There is no need to pre-fund your account; instead you will be prompted to deposit a specific amount of XMR (the only method of payment available) to an address representing payment for a specific order. The address is generated upon checkout, after you have entered in your order specifications and shipping details.
Browsing White House Market
With close to 40,000 listings, White House Market is one of the biggest darknet markets ever, and unfortunately it can be a bit difficult to navigate. Listings are organized into the following categories (and subcategories) as shown from the Welcome page:
- Drugs (Benzos, Cannabis, Dissociatives, Drug Precursors, Ecstasy, Laboratory Equipment, Opioids, Other Drugs, Paraphernalia, Prescription Drugs, Psychedelics, Steroids, Stimulants, Tobacco, Weight Loss)
- Online Business (Bank Logins, Cards and CVV, Corporate Intel, Cryptocurrency, Drops, Dumps, Other Fraud Related, SSN / DOB / Other, Various Logins)
- Software (Botnets and Malware, Commercial Software, Exploits / Exploit Kits, Other Software, Security Software)
- Services (Carding, Fake Documents, Hosting, Operational Management, Other Services, SOCKS, Security, Social Engineering, VPN)
- Forgeries/Counterfeits (Art, Currency, Electronics, Jewelry, Other Forgeries, Watches)
- Defense/Counter Intel (Operational Security, Secure Communication, Signal Jammers)
Several subcategories have even smaller subcategories beneath them, which means it’s possible to get quite specific when filtering through their huge selection of listings.
There are two main ways to go about finding suitable products. The first is to use the search box to find a product by name. The simple search is shown by default from the homepage and offers ship from/to filters along with a sort-by option. An advanced search option is available by toggling to the blue button located above the filters that says “Switch to advanced search”. Advanced search filters include category or subcategory and text field to search in addition to the other options available in the simple search mode.
The second way to find a product is to simply browse by category for it. To do this, just hover over a product category from the home screen and click on the subcategory you wish to browse. After doing so, you can sort listings by date listed, price or randomly.
Product Listings & Vendors
Once you find a listing that looks interesting, click on its title to bring up the details. From the listing page you can see all the product’s specs, its price, images, shipping options, notes on the product, and other information from the vendor. You can also see the vendor’s overall feedback rating from customers, along with their feedback imported from other markets, their number of disputes at White House, and range of sales they’ve completed.
White House Market is home to a lot of vendors so we recommend being selective as it’s always a good idea to go with the highest-rated vendor possible. To find out more about a vendor, click on their name in the product listing to bring up their User Info page. From here you can check all their current listings, contact them, add them to a list of your favorites or report them for breaking the market’s rules or terms. You can also see all of their relevant details, like their % positive reviews, dispute statistics, PGP public key for encrypting messages, and a custom profile in which they include their policies.
It is important to read through this information before placing an order with the vendor, as many have different policies when it comes to shipping, refunds, etc. Reading the reviews left by previous buyers will give you an idea of whether they had a positive experience with the vendor or not, as well as an idea of what to expect when dealing with the vendor.
Reputation is everything when it comes to darknet markets like White House, so stick to only ordering from vendors with good reputations. While everything could go perfectly fine, ordering from newbie vendors is discouraged as it is always a better choice to go with the experienced vendor. Even if new vendor prices seem like a bargain, just remember that paying a few extra dollars now could save you a lot of time and headache in the future.
If you like a vendor and plan on ordering something from them, import their PGP public key into your utility (such as Kleopatra) as you will need it later to encrypt your shipping information when you place an order.
Placing an Order
Now that you’ve found a product you wish to purchase and are ready to make an order, scroll down to the bottom of its listing page and click on the orange “Place an order for this item” button. You will be brought to the order detail screen where you will enter in your encrypted shipping information, quantity, and shipping method. Note that you must encrypt your shipping information using the seller’s PGP key before placing the order! Forgetting to do this is actually impossible because White House enforces end-to-end encryption for user communications. When filled with an encrypted address, your Message field should look like this:
After solving the captcha, click the orange “Place Order” button to confirm your order. You will be brought to an invoice screen where you will have 3 hours (180 minutes) to complete your order. The first step in doing this is to decrypt the message displayed beneath the order information. This will reveal the Monero address to which you will send the exact amount of XMR displayed on the screen, which should look something like this:
Along with the XMR address, the decrypted message will also contain a signed PGP message which can be verified using the White House PGP key. Alternatively, you can also press the “Show QR Code” button if you want to make a transaction using a mobile device. Remember that these aren’t reusable addresses – they are specific to each order – so make sure you don’t mess up the amount you are sending. There is no memo that must be attached to each transaction. Be sure to send your order within the 3 hour time limit or you will be charged an additional 5% late order fee.
After your payment has been detected by the Monero network, the order information will be sent to the vendor, and your order will be marked as Accepted. The vendor will now start preparing the package for shipping. After the package has been shipped, the order will be marked as Completed. Once the buyer has received it and decided it is acceptable, they mark the order as Finalized, which releases the funds from escrow to the vendor.
If your vendor is not FE-enabled, don’t prematurely release funds to them if you have not yet received your product, even if they ask you to. These vendors have not been granted FE privileges, and perhaps for a reason. White House even reminds its users from the order screen, “Do not release funds from escrow until you have received your order. By releasing you lose the right to a dispute.”
On the opposite end of this, don’t forget to finalize your order once it has been received and you are satisfied with it. Vendors have different auto-finalize times so you may have to extend the time until finalized if an order is taking a particularly long while to arrive.
If you are unhappy with an order, you can dispute it from the “Your Paid Orders” screen found in the settings under your user name. We recommend reserving this as an option of last resort as the dispute process can be lengthy, and if the vendor whose order you are disputing has a better reputation than you, there’s a good chance things might not go in your favor. That’s why it’s always a better idea to attempt to resolve things with the vendor directly rather than going through the market dispute process.
Conclusion
In all, White House Market seems to be a competent operation and it continues to swell in size by the day. This will undoubtedly bring more unwanted attention to it as well, which has already manifested itself in the form of steady DDOS attacks, but the market seems to otherwise be holding up fairly well. White House’s product selection is probably one of the biggest and most diverse out there at the moment and they have attracted a lot of highly reputable vendors during the short period of their existence.
As always, there remains an inherent risk in using any darknet market, but White House Market seems to mitigate these risks as much as humanly possible through their design and policies, which makes them as good a choice as any when looking for such an experience.