Why the mirrors changed again in October

The onion addresses on this page change more often than most people would like, and the reason is not laziness. The market rotates its entry points to keep any single address from becoming a target, and to make sure that if one of them gets taken down, the others are still standing.

When you see a new set of addresses posted, the question is whether it is the market doing it or someone else. The difference comes down to one thing: a signature. The market signs its mirror list with a PGP key, and the signature is what separates a real rotation from a copy that someone typed up from memory. If you can verify the signature against the key you already have, the list is real. If you cannot, treat it as unconfirmed until you can.

How a rotation actually happens

A rotation is not a big event. The market brings up the new address, confirms it is serving the same interface as the old one, and then publishes the signed list. The old address usually keeps working for a short window so nobody is stranded, and then it is retired. There is no announcement ceremony. The signed list is the announcement.

If your bookmark stops resolving, do not panic and do not trust the first link a stranger sends you in a chat. Go back to a source you already trust, pull the current signed list, and compare. The whole exercise takes a few minutes if you have the key imported, which is exactly the kind of setup the PGP guide on this site walks through.

What does not count as a rotation

A single character difference is not a rotation. A link posted in a random forum thread with no signature is not a rotation. A mirror that loads a slightly different layout is probably not the market at all. Rotations are deliberate and signed, and anything that skips either of those is asking you to take a risk on a hunch.