Awazon Market Payments: Bitcoin and Monero

Awazon settles in two coins, Bitcoin and Monero, and both feed the same escrow at checkout. This page covers how a deposit moves, how long each coin takes to credit, what the fees are, and the one mistake that costs people real money.

Deposits

Open the wallet page from the account menu and pick a coin. The market generates a fresh deposit address for the request and displays it. Send the amount from an external wallet you control. The deposit shows as pending immediately and credits once the chain confirms it. Bitcoin credits after two to three confirmations, which in practice means ten to sixty minutes depending on network load. Monero needs about ten blocks, roughly twenty minutes, because its finality is more predictable. If a deposit has not credited after double the expected window, check your wallet's transaction history first, then post in the Awazon thread on Dread with the details.

Which coin to use

Bitcoin is the easier coin to obtain and the one most exchanges sell, but its ledger is public. Every satoshi that touches a Bitcoin address is visible, so a deposit leaves a trail that a determined analyst can follow back toward you. Monero hides the amount, the sender and the receiver using ring signatures and stealth addresses, which leaves a far smaller trail. For a deposit you want to keep off a readable chain, Monero is the stronger choice. For a deposit you are making from coins you already hold and do not want to swap, Bitcoin is the cheaper one. Neither choice changes your escrow terms. Both get identical coverage under the multisig contract.

Withdrawals

A withdrawal goes to any external address you control, a hardware wallet, a mobile client, a paper address. Pick the coin, paste the destination, confirm. The flow is the inverse of a deposit. Bitcoin and Monero withdrawals broadcast and reach the destination once the network confirms them. The storefront wallet is meant for transactions, not custody, so the practical rule is to keep on it only what you are about to spend and withdraw the rest. A balance you do not have on the platform is a balance an attacker cannot take.

The mistake that costs money

Do not send a coin the market does not accept to a deposit address it generated for another one. If you send Litecoin to a Bitcoin address, or Ethereum to a Monero address, the funds are lost. That is standard across Tor markets, because address generators are chain specific. The market cannot reverse a send to the wrong chain. Check the coin label on the deposit page before you confirm, and when in doubt, send a small test amount first and wait for it to credit before moving the rest.