How to access Nexus Market

Download Tor Browser

One source and only one source. torproject.org, or its onion at 2gzyxa5ihm7nsggfxnu52rck2vv4rvmdlkiu3zzui5du4xyclen53wid.onion. Any other download page is either a mirror you cannot verify or a fake with a modified browser inside. First time you install, verify the signature on the bundle. The download page walks through the check for every operating system.

Settings that matter

Open the shield icon next to the address bar. Set the security level to Safest. This disables JavaScript on all sites, blocks some fonts, disables symbols and formulas. Some sites break under Safest. Every Tor market that matters, including Nexus, works fine on Safest because the login flow is HTML forms rather than heavy JavaScript apps.

Never resize the browser window. Tor Browser opens at a fixed size on purpose. Resizing gives you a unique window size and identifies you uniquely across sites that fingerprint the window. If you maximize by accident, close the window and open a new one.

Do not install any extension. Every extension changes the fingerprint. NoScript, uBlock, a dark reader theme, all of them make you look different from a stock install. Even changing the new tab page is a mistake. Leave the browser exactly as it came out of the download.

Open a Nexus mirror

Copy any onion address from the current mirror set. Paste into the Tor Browser address bar. Press Return. The anti-DDoS wait page appears and holds you for 20 to 60 seconds while the counter decrements. When the counter finishes, the captcha renders. Solve the captcha and the login page comes up.

If the wait page never decrements, close the tab and open a different mirror from the list. Circuit variance across an evening is real. A mirror that stalls at eight can open instantly at nine.

Bridges if your network blocks Tor

If your ISP or country blocks or logs Tor connections, use a bridge. Open Settings → Connection, tick Use a bridge, pick obfs4 from the built-in list, or request a bridge from bridges.torproject.org. Bridges hide the fact that you are on Tor. They do not hide what you do on Tor. The security defaults inside the browser still apply.

Common connection problems

• Wait page stuck at "loading", bad circuit. Close the tab, open another mirror, or use New Identity from the browser menu and try again.
• Captcha never renders, same fix as above. Bad circuit, try again through a fresh identity.
• Onion address does not resolve, either the mirror is being rotated at exactly this moment, or your clock is off by more than a few minutes. Check your system clock. Onion routing relies on accurate time.
• Everything is slow, Tor network congestion, not the market. Check metrics.torproject.org if you want to confirm. Wait a few hours.

Do not do these things

• Do not log into a clearnet account (Google, Facebook, your bank) in the same browser session. Cross-linking your Tor session with a real name is exactly what Tor Browser is built to prevent.
• Do not stack a VPN underneath Tor. The combination adds latency without measurably adding privacy, and in some configurations it makes you stand out rather than blend in.
• Do not open documents downloaded from Tor sites in a normal application. PDFs, docs and archives can phone home the moment you open them outside Tor Browser. Open them inside Tails or a Whonix workstation instead.
• Do not paste your Nexus password into a page you got from a search result or a random forum link. Every session, glance at the URL bar and confirm you are on a mirror listed on this page.