Mars market, in quantities

Every number in this subject, and what each one is worth

People argue about this subject with adjectives. Almost all of it can be counted instead. This site takes one quantity per page, states it, shows where it comes from, and says plainly whether it is a fact or a judgement.

Mars market addresses

Published, not monitored
mars24pas2vgwtr4drrsy7tlngevbvxyguejynnkeywibjzenet7knqd.onion
marsautbk3di5cj75eh4dakjjrngddnjwqfdltbq2sy6cf7unzkd2bad.onion
marsautkudspgk6j23cxdtrk36ae4fpis2eoe7izu5y2rsksvmfji2ad.onion

These three addresses are printed as given. This site does not test them, does not know whether any of them answers right now, and publishes no availability figure. An address that opens is not the same thing as an address that is genuine, which is what the forty character fingerprint is for.

The table

Every number this site publishes is listed below, smallest first inside each group. The chip on the right says whether the value was counted or judged. Counted means the number falls out of a specification or a definition and would be the same whoever wrote it down. Judged means somebody had to choose an assumption, and the page names the assumption.

Nothing on this list is measured live. No page here checks whether an address answers, and no page carries a checking date, because checking is not something this site does.

1One character, and why a typo is not the dangerA single wrong character breaks the address instead of redirecting itCounted2Two bytes that catch mistakes and nothing elseSixteen bits of error detection stapled to the end of the keyCounted3Three addresses, and what having three is forThe count of Mars addresses printed on this siteCounted4Four characters, and why that comparison is worthlessThe length of prefix an attacker can match on a laptopJudged8Eight characters, where forgery starts costing somethingThe prefix length that turns minutes into days of computeJudged12Twelve characters, and where the ceiling actually isThe prefix length that puts forgery beyond any budgetJudged32Thirty two symbols, and the four digits that are missingLetters a to z plus digits 2 to 7, and nothing elseCounted35Thirty five bytes, and only thirty two of them matterThe payload behind the 56 characters, split three waysCounted56Fifty six characters, never fifty five, never fifty sevenThe fixed length of every current onion addressCounted62Sixty two characters, once the suffix is attachedThe full hostname, address plus the six character suffixCounted0.0001A ten thousandth of a coin, and why nothing hinges on itA normal priority transfer costs a rounding errorJudged2Two minutes, the unit every wait here is written inThe target gap between blocks on this chainCounted2 of 3Two of three, and the three pairs that can spendThree keys, any two of which can move the held fundsCounted6Six confirmations, and the paper it escaped fromA Bitcoin convention that outlived its original contextJudged10Ten blocks between arriving and being usableThe consensus wait between coin landing and coin movingCounted12Twelve places, and the integers underneath themOne coin split into a million million whole unitsCounted25Twenty five words, and what the last one is forTwenty four words of key material plus a checksum wordCounted95Ninety five characters, and the digit at the frontThe length of a payment address, and its first characterCounted3 to 21Three to twenty one days, and when late is actually lateThe spread of ordinary post, home at one end and abroad at the otherJudged4Four minutes, the cheapest insurance in the subjectWhat a full fingerprint comparison actually costs you in timeJudged5Five tries, and what happens on the sixthThe usual number of failed logins before a delay or a lockoutJudged7Seven days, and a clock that starts when you fileThe usual life of a dispute once somebody has opened oneJudged10Ten minutes, the working life of one circuitHow long new traffic keeps using the same path through the networkCounted14Fourteen days, the clock that finishes without youThe window after which escrow finalises if nobody does anythingJudged20Twenty minutes, a figure nobody outside can confirmThe usual idle timeout, and why the real one is unknowableJudged24Twenty four hours, and the hour that costs people moneyA pause this site invented, and the only number here it made upJudged8Eight hex characters, and the year they were cloned in bulkThe short key id, small enough to duplicate on purposeCounted10Ten groups of four, and how people actually read themThe chunking that makes forty characters readable by eyeCounted16Sixteen hex characters, and the case against middlesThe long key id, too short to trust and long enough to fool peopleCounted40Forty hex characters, the reference pageThe full fingerprint, the only number here that answers whoCounted4096Four thousand and ninety six bits, and why the number misleadsA key size people quote as a score, which it is notJudged

How to use this

If you came here for a mars market link, the three published addresses sit at the top of every page on this site, including this one. Copy one rather than retyping it. The rest of the site exists because a copied address on its own answers almost none of the questions people actually have.

If you came here to settle an argument, find the number in the table and read the page. Each one is short. The four headings are always the same shape: where the number comes from, what it buys you, what people get wrong about it, and what would move it.

Start with the address

Ten numbers describe the shape of a mars market onion address, from the 56 characters you see to the 2 bytes you never notice.

Address numbers
Then the money

Block times, decimal places, signature thresholds and a fee that is measured in fractions of a cent.

Money numbers
Then the clock

Delivery windows, auto release, dispute limits and how many login attempts you get before a wall goes up.

Time numbers
And the keys

Forty hex characters, sixteen, eight, and why only one of those three settles anything.

Key numbers

What this site is not

It is not the market. It has no account with the market, no arrangement with it, and no way to reach anybody who works on it. If your order is late or your deposit has not landed, nothing here can move it.

It is also not a status board. There are sites that ping addresses and print a percentage. This is not one of them. The zero page explains why that decision was made and what it costs you.

And it sells nothing. There is no advertising on these pages, no affiliate arrangement, no sponsored placement and no money from any platform. There are no forms either, so nothing you type here goes anywhere.

How the numbers are made Counted or judged Why nothing here is checked

One warning about all of itNumbers in this subject age. A market changes a limit, a coin changes a default, a tool gets faster. Where a number depends on something outside the specification, the page says so under the heading that asks what would move it. Read that part before quoting the number anywhere.

Questions people ask

Is there one number that matters more than the others?

Forty, the length of a PGP fingerprint in hex characters. It is the only number on this site that can tell you whether you are talking to who you think you are talking to. Everything else describes the machinery around that question. The forty page covers it.

Why is there no uptime figure anywhere?

Because this site does not test anything. An uptime figure that comes from one machine on one network at one moment is close to worthless anyway, and printing one would suggest a level of knowledge that does not exist here. The zero page says more.

Are these numbers official?

No. Where a number comes from a public specification, the page names the specification so you can check it. Where a number is a common setting or a habit rather than a rule, the page says that in the first line. Nothing here was confirmed by the market.