Verify the Address
The address string is the one place where a typo does not land you on an error page. It lands you on a different site, and that site is built to look like the one you meant to reach.
What a wrong letter does
Tor resolves a .onion address to a hidden service. Change one character and the network hands you a different hidden service: a copy of the market with a ready-made login form. The layout matches, the name matches, and your credentials go to that page instead of the market. There is no error to catch, which is why the check is manual.
The three checks
- Count: 56 characters before ".onion", 62 including it. A string that is 55 or 57 long is not a current address.
- Prefix: all three current addresses start with "crown". Anything else is not one of them.
- Suffix: the last six characters are unique to each mirror and easy to memorize. Compare the last six in your address bar against what you copied.
| Mirror | Last six characters |
|---|---|
| crownm5jmtbhqnoxhexx7nyiygqgqofp3wnjyyfl74gziohqqy6oq5id.onion | 6oq5id |
| crownrywlm7mnohkzntlir2tlhafq6tzphgqyag5cw5en7nprchfklad.onion | hfklad |
| crownwpaimgizxylrvrh4u6acpvk4l757cfla7xs6zjki7tdjqbnv6qd.onion | bnv6qd |
The full check
Copy the address from your browser's URL bar into a plain text file, next to the one you copied from the list. Line them up and compare character by character. They must match exactly, all 62 characters. A single drift, one swapped letter, one missing one, means you are not on the market. Do this before the login form, not after.