The verify approach against this site alone
I do not always have a second independent source lying around. When the only second source is this site, I say so and I proceed accordingly.
The three addresses
Nexus Market publishes these three onion addresses. Present as supplied, in no order, with no ranking. This site does not probe them and shows no uptime figure.
nexusb2l7fmqnefwphyy7m5zjhlkytlbo7qbb5lu5dlczr3azgii2gyd.onion
nexusma2iqgauqqvjcgds4ckv5xbf272tkfagq4epojjhsgleqpwxiqd.onion
nexusabcd6tyfhdwilyitaqiri6tisj2v2hueyjuj6qkvd6azvi5tuqd.onion
The honest name of this approach
This is not a verify. It is a check. The verify approach implies a second independent source. When the only source I have is this site, what I am doing is confirming that the address I have matches the addresses this site publishes. That is a check, not a verify.
Calling it what it is keeps me from thinking I did more than I did.
When the check is what I have
It is what I have when I got an address from a source I have some confidence in but not a second one. It is what I have when I am on a device that cannot easily open a second source. It is what I have when the visit is small enough that a full verify is disproportionate.
It is not what I do when the visit is about to move money. That visit gets a real verify or it waits until I can do one.
What the check tells me
It tells me whether the address I have is one this site knows about. If it is, I have one source that says the address is a nexus market address. If it is not, I have one source that says the address is not one of the three currently on the site.
Neither answer is conclusive. The market can publish addresses this site has not yet added. This site can be wrong on a given day. But the check narrows the space, and narrowing is worth something.
How I do the check
I open this site in Tor Browser. I read the three onion addresses at the top of any article. I compare the address I have with each of the three, character by character. I look at the first character, the last character, and four characters from the middle.
If any character disagrees, the address I have is not one of these three. That is not proof it is wrong, but it is not confirmation either. I do not use it on this visit.
If it matches one of the three, I have my one source. I proceed with a look but not with a sign in.
What I do if the address matches
I copy the address from this site rather than pasting the one I already had. That removes the chance that the address I had was slightly wrong in a way I missed. This site's copy button gives me the exact string, in one action.
I paste, I visit, I look. I close the browser when I am done. If I decide to sign in later, that is a later visit.
What I do if the address does not match
I do not use it today. I do not paste it into Tor Browser. I do not check whether it loads. I close whatever tab it came from and I move on.
The address may be a real one this site does not have yet. It may be a wrong one. Without a second source I cannot tell, and the answer to that ambiguity is to not act on it.
What the check is good for over time
- Regular small visits where I already have a routine that includes this site.
- Quick confirmations that a note I have not touched in a while still lines up with the current addresses.
- A first light pass on an address before I do a fuller verify later on.
- Any visit where I am already on this site for another reason and want to sanity check a stray address.
The tone of the check
The check is small and quiet. It is a look at three lines. It takes a minute. It is a habit I run without ceremony.
It is not the verify approach at its most powerful. It is the verify approach at its most portable. Both are worth having.
The verify approach with two lists side by side, the verify approach with two independent sources
What this article is not. This is not a claim that verifying against one source is a real verify. It is a claim that being explicit about what I checked is better than pretending I did a bigger check.