Today marks two months since the Dreads service went down. Without the front page of the darknet, users are lost and getting more impatient. What is going on in the background with Dread? And why have they not relaunched the site after two months? Today we’ll try to answer those questions. 

Quick Answers

• Dread went down due to DDoS attacks; they’re now recreating the website from scratch, and infallible infrastructure has been the major issue.
• According to Dread Admin HugBunt3rs last post on January 21st, 2023, “Dread should be online within the next week.” Another failed deadline.
• Website infrastructure and clusters causing the delay.
• The last admin canary was published on January 20th
• Dread admins inviting volunteers to test the website.
• Side Note: Warning Kilos Is Exit Scamming.

A Quick Recap

Over the last year, the Darknet forum known as Dread experienced some heavy DDoS attacks. It’s not known exactly who the attacker is, but HugBunt3r has confirmed that it isn’t Law Enforcement. Either way, the attacks became so severe that almost all access to Dread via Tor wouldn’t work.  

The team did have live I2P servers but opted to shut shop for a while as they upgraded their servers. This is because, as HugBunt3r puts it “the platform and corresponding database structure has been MUCH needed for around 3 years now, our servers have been screaming in pain because of the inefficiencies my rushed code caused.”

In hopes that they don’t need to deal with such an issue again, the two admins are working hard to ensure the code isn’t rushed and the servers can withstand any attacks. 

The effects are quite severe as Dread, Recon and DNM Bible all went down together. Recon is the Darknet’s best vendor archiving service and doubles as a search engine for multiple darknet marketplaces. The Recon service played a major role in finding out whether a vendor was trustable or not. 

Why Hasn’t Dread Returned?

There was some excitement on January 21st as HugBunt3r returned to r/DreadAlert and made a post titled “[January 21st] Dread Re-launch ETA” In his post, he emphasized that ETA means Estimated and noted that he’d been hesitant to provide ETAs due to community backlash when ETA deadlines aren’t met. To be fair, though, HugBunt3r has claimed that the website should be up and running “By next week” since his first post two months back. 

In his post, Hugbunt3r noted that “On the infrastructure side, we’ve faced many setbacks with configuring things as we’ve needed, which is also very different to our previous cluster setup.” which echoes u/Paris most recent Canary, where explained that he had “finally fixed problem with the cluster”

Hugbunt3r went on to explain that “As for the rewrite work I’ve been putting into the codebase, that was a crazy task where I’ve had to completely rip apart the underlying functionality for almost everything, which was a complete mess and I had to spend a lot of time on the theory of how to redevelop it, covering all potential issues along the way” and gave his latest missed deadline, which would be January 28th at the latest. 

So why didn’t he meet the deadline? Well in his post, HugBun3r also noted that: “[He does] not expect any issues with the remaining work required on the server cluster, although my insight into what Paris is working on for that is also limited.” pushing us to believe the issue lies on Paris’s side. 

Dread Relaunch Testing In Progress

During the final phase in recreating the Darknet Dread forum, Hugbunt3r explained that he’d be inviting users for private testing. Since the first post Hugbunt3r made on r/DreadAlert, users have volunteered to help in testing the newly built website. However, he hadn’t made comment on this until now. 

Even though HugBunt3r said he’d be looking for users to test the Dread rehaul, he didn’t provide any details on how said users can apply to test out the website. With no application process, hundreds of users have left comments on his most recent post. 

Thank you Paris & u/hugbunt3r for everything you’ve done to this point. I’m unsure what inviting users would entail or how it would go about but I’d be more then happy to help here anywhere it’s possible to this get Dread back online.

Dread user: u/Florbdorb657

So if you want to test out Dread’s (relaunched Beta?), then maybe drop a comment on the post

No More Updates! Dread Coming Soon

Although there has been much speculation over the entire situation and whether the two admins will actually relaunch the site, things do look positive. It’s frustrating to say the least, that they’ve failed to keep to their promises over ETAs, but the team seems to be working their asses off. 

Although new forums have popped up, and others have grown, it’s still evident that the Darknet suffers without Dread. They’re the front page of the darknet and a safe place for darknet market research. They have a monopoly over the darknet forum, and by the looks of it, they’re trying their best. 

According to HugBunt3r, keeping the community updated on the issue is a waste of time, and he will no longer provide updates from here. He also claims he’s been frustrated with those complaining about the downtime and that Dread is coming, the community needs to be patient. 

This is the best ETA I can give you, once again

assuming no extreme issues. Do not expect it though

and stop putting further pressure on us. It is

impossible to know if anything would crop up and

prevent relaunch this week and I am giving my

personal opinion as the path to this seems a lot

clearer at this point in time.

I’m at a point now where anyone who complains about

this because of their absolute lack of understanding

can just fuck off, seriously. You have no idea what

both myself and Paris put ourselves through for this

platform to serve you and the risks we take in doing

so, I hope you enjoyed the holidays, because I was

knee deep in development the entire time.

This is the last update post I will be publishing until

re-launch, unless anything else is absolutely needed.

I may still respond to comments, but honestly need to

just focus on completion.

Dread will be live, when it is live.

HugBunt3rs PGP signed message

Conclusion: Darknet Forum Dread Will Return Soon! Are you excited?

The team has gone silent for atleast eight days now, but they’ve claimed that they’re drained from all the hard work of putting together Dread from scratch without prior planning. We are excited to see Dread relaunch, but the reality is that the darknet is a ruthless place. Two months of downtime wouldn’t be accepted in most cases, and this will inevitably damage the reputation. We do hope to see a refreshing look as Dread goes live again. When that will actually take place? Not even the Dread admins know at this point.