Two things that look the same

Pairs people confuse on Nexus Market, and the one test between them

Home ›Addresses ›Did the set move, or did your copy slip

Nexus market mirrors

nexusb2l7fmqnefwphyy7m5zjhlkytlbo7qbb5lu5dlczr3azgii2gyd.onion
nexusma2iegzo7atzwbrwxhcdopyri3vare2twibldnlc3txqjdeb5yd.onion
nexusabcdpvtnivv6owtqjkvd22k5x3hlpofkgjqjmgzltlde6mwe2qd.onion

Published as supplied. Nothing here is monitored, so none of this is a claim that any address opens right now.

Addresses / Pair 06 of 41

Did the set move, or did your copy slip

Your saved address no longer matches what is in front of you. Before deciding the market moved, check whether the thing you saved was ever a valid address in the first place.

One string, two ways of being wrong

A list that changedA

The published set is different now

The set being published has been updated. Strings drop off it, strings appear on it, and a note you wrote months ago has no way of following that on its own.

An address you copied wrongB

Your record is damaged

Somewhere between the screen and your file, characters were lost, doubled, transposed, or read as the wrong glyph. The set never moved at all. Your copy of it did.

Both arrive at you as the same event: a string in your hand that does not match a string on your screen. From there the two stories are wildly different in what they ask of you, and only one of them involves going anywhere.

People reach for the changed-set story first, and it is easy to see why. It is external, it is dramatic, and it flatters your copying. Admitting that a character went astray while you were pasting feels like admitting to being careless, which nobody enjoys at the moment they are trying to get somewhere.

Counting before comparing

Check the string is even possible

Count to fifty-six, then scan for 0, 1, 8 and 9. Onion addresses use base32, which is a to z and 2 to 7 only, so any of those four digits means the string was damaged rather than replaced.

  1. Count the characters before .onion. There have to be exactly fifty-six, and a wrong count settles the matter on its own.
  2. Scan for 0, 1, 8 and 9. None of them can appear in a valid address. A zero means you captured an o, a one usually means an l or an i.
  3. Look for spaces, line breaks and stray punctuation that came along with the paste. Case makes no difference to the client, but a space certainly does.
  4. Only when the string is exactly fifty-six legal characters is it worth asking whether the published set actually moved.

What each case asks of you

  1. Length first, always. A wrong length is a wrong copy, and no amount of careful comparison afterwards will rescue it.
  2. Then the alphabet. An illegal character means the same thing as a wrong length, and it is faster to spot.
  3. Then position. If your string agrees with a published one nearly everywhere and differs in one or two places, you damaged it. Two independent keys do not produce strings that happen to agree in fifty-four positions.
  4. Then wholesale difference. A legal string sharing nothing with the current set is either an address that was genuinely dropped or one that was never theirs, which is a separate pair.

That order saves you from the common trap, which is comparing character by character against a string that could never have been valid. Once you know the length is wrong, comparison is wasted effort, and wasted effort at this point tends to end with you deciding something has changed.

The cost of assuming a move

If you treat a changed list as a copying error
You recopy a string that genuinely is no longer published, get the same result, and blame your hands for a while. The bill is time and mild irritation.
If you treat a copying error as a changed list
You decide the market has moved, go looking for a fresh set, and accept whatever the first place you land on happens to offer. That is how people end up with a string somebody wanted them to have.

Both readings end with you doing something, and only one of the two somethings can hurt. Checking your own copy costs nothing and can be done without leaving the room. Going looking for a new set means trusting a new source, and new sources found in a hurry are the weakest link in this entire business. The costs table puts this pair beside the others, and the pattern holds throughout.

Fixing your copy or your source

If the list changed
Take the set fresh from somewhere the market controls and replace your note as a whole rather than editing individual lines. Write the date next to it so the next version of you knows how old it is.
If your copy is wrong
Recopy from the source in a single action and paste it in a single action. Then compare the middle of the result against the source before you save anything.

Questions readers send about this pair

Can an onion address contain the digit 0 or 1?

No. Base32 as used here is the letters a to z and the digits 2 to 7, nothing else. A zero or a one in your string means a letter was misread on the way into your file.

How often do published sets actually change?

Often enough that an old note is worth doubting, and rarely enough that a mismatch is much more likely to be your copy. Check the copy first since it is free, then consider the set.

Does capitalisation matter?

Not to the client, which treats the string case-insensitively. It matters to you only in that a copy with odd capitalisation is a hint that the string passed through something that reformatted it, and reformatting loses characters.

Every page here

AddressesGetting inMoneyOrdersPeopleWordsDown for now, or finished for goodOld address, or one built to be misreadSame page at two addresses, and only one is theirsThe redirect and the string it stands in forYour path through Tor, or the far endDid the set move, or did your copy slipLoading proves a server answered, and nothing moreRate limiting against a password that no longer matchesWhen the puzzle is broken and when the reader isA door you shut yourself against a lock somebody changedLogged out by a clock against logged out by a decisionA code that does not match against a clock that does notAn absence against a single character out of placeA wait somebody planned against a wait nobody didA deposit that is slow, or a deposit that is goneThe address expired, or it was never issued to youA rule about release, or a decision about youWho took the difference, the operator or the networkA saving on quantity, or a saving on protectionMoney back, or the end of the argumentStill moving, or already refusedStill settling, or short by a fractionA date with something behind it, and a date withoutOne request moves a clock, the other moves the moneyAsking for a ruling, or handing over informationA word in a database, and an event in a recordNothing new to report is not the same as bad newsA rule that runs by itself, and a date somebody prefersSilence and being ignored look identicalQuiet is not the same as goneFeedback tells you a mood, evidence tells you a factWhat a signature actually provesThe market only speaks in one placeAn empty history and a claimed historyThe result is good. Whose key was it?The same clean result, months apartYou cannot check an image, however clear it isOne of these strings was chosen by somebodyPosted where, and written by whomWho granted it, and what were they promisingTwo lists of addresses, two different guaranteesHow to read a pairEvery pairThe testsThe costsMirrorsQuestions