Pygmalion Darknet Market: Mirror 5 Technical Profile and Current State

Pygmalion’s fifth-generation mirror has quietly become a reference point for researchers tracking how mid-sized darknet markets evolve after prolonged law-enforcement pressure. Unlike the flashy marketing cycles of larger venues, Pygmalion has survived by shrinking its attack surface while keeping core functionality intact. Mirror 5, deployed in late 2023, is the latest iteration: same codebase, new .onion endpoints, and a refreshed PGP keyring. For analysts, it offers a useful snapshot of what “stable decline” looks like—an aging user base, thinner inventory, but surprisingly solid operational security.

Background and brief history

Pygmalion first appeared in early 2020, riding the post-Grams vacuum when smaller markets rushed to absorb Dream refugees. The original build was a fork of the classic Eckmar script, heavily modified to strip JavaScript and add per-order stealth PGP prompts. Version 2 debuted after the 2021 Tor DDOS wave, introducing proof-of-work .onion gateways and rotating mirrors every 90 days. Mirrors 3 and 4 survived the 2022 “Onymous II” takedown chatter by enforcing mandatory XMR and eliminating centralized wallets. Mirror 5 continues that austerity program: no forum, no on-site exchange, no JavaScript chat—just bare-bones buying and selling with a reputation ledger that has carried over since v1.

Features and functionality

The market still runs on the custom Eckmar fork, now at commit 5.3.7. Key modules include:

  • Per-order escrow with 2-of-3 multisig (XMR only) or optional finalize-early for trusted vendors
  • Stealth orders: buyers paste a PGP-encrypted shipping buffer that only the vendor can decrypt
  • Mirror token: a six-character string refreshed every 48 hours and signed by the market’s master key; users paste it into the login box to detect phishing clones
  • Vendor bond fixed at 0.15 XMR, non-waivable; no “gold” or “diamond” tiers—leveling is purely sales-based
  • Simple search with weighting for recent feedback, dispute rate, and median shipping time

Notably, Mirror 5 removed the “auto-shop” feature that allowed instant digital downloads; admins cited chain-analysis leakage traced to automated wallets.

Security model and escrow mechanics

Pygmalion never held user wallets in the conventional sense. Deposits are swept into a cold Monero address within three blocks; individual balances are just database integers. When an order is placed, the server creates a disposable sub-address tied to the escrow smart contract. The 2-of-3 setup works: buyer funds the sub-address, vendor sees confirmation, ships, and signs release when tracking shows delivery. If both parties refuse to sign, staff can arbitrate after 14 days. Dispute volume runs below 1.2 % according to independent scrapers—low for a market of this size. Two-factor authentication is mandatory for vendors (TOTP plus PGP), optional but recommended for buyers.

User experience and interface

The UI is intentionally spartan: no CSS grid, no icons, just semantic HTML that renders correctly in Tails’ Unsafe Browser. Page weight averages 120 KB, so even during Tor congestion the market remains usable. Search filters are limited to category, price range, and shipping origin—enough to narrow results without leaking JavaScript timing fingerprints. One quality-of-life tweak in Mirror 5 is the “trust preview”: before you even log in, the landing page displays the current mirror token, the latest Bitcoin block height, and a SHA-256 hash of the last 100 feedbacks. That lets you cross-reference uptime trackers without exposing your session.

Reputation, trust signals and community perception

Because Pyggalion has no forum, reputation discourse happens off-site—primarily on Dread’s /d/Pygmalion sub. Veteran shoppers watch three metrics: (1) dispute-to-sale ratio, (2) median resolution time, and (3) vendor PGP age. A vendor whose key predates Mirror 3 and still shows <0.5 % disputes is considered solid. Mirror 5’s cumulative sales figure crossed 42 k orders last month, down from a 60 k peak during Mirror 4, but the average order value has risen 30 %, suggesting core buyers remain. No verified exit-scam has occurred; the only major incident was a 2022 phish wave that leveraged a typo-squat .onion, prompting the current mirror-token scheme.

Current status and reliability

As of June 2024, Mirror 5 maintains four rotating .onion addresses, each announced via the market’s canonical PGP-signed message. Uptime over the last 90 days averages 94 %—acceptable given ongoing Tor congestion. Withdrawals are processed in the next Monero block 98 % of the time; delays usually coincide with spam attacks on the Tor network, not market-side issues. Inventory skews toward digital and low-weight physical goods; bulk listings have thinned because large-scale vendors migrated to bigger venues. The admin cadence is low-noise: updates arrive as terse GPG-signed text files, never marketing fluff. Observers interpret that minimal surface area as a survival strategy rather than abandonment.

Conclusion

Pygmalion Mirror 5 will not reclaim the heyday volumes of 2021, but that was never the goal. It offers a stripped-down, Monero-native trading floor with multisig escrow, lightweight pages, and a track record free of dramatic exits. For researchers, it is a control specimen: show how far reduced feature sets can go toward keeping a market online. For users, it remains viable if your list is short, your OPSEC tight, and your expectations modest. Just remember to verify the mirror token every session, keep JavaScript off, and encrypt shipping data client-side—Pygmalion’s design assumes you already know the basics and will not hold your hand if you do not.