Where did your Nexus link come from?
Almost everyone asks whether a link is real. Very few ask where it came from, which is the question that actually predicts the answer. This site grades every channel a Nexus address travels through and tells you plainly what each one can and cannot establish.
The one idea this site is built on
An onion address is a public key. Serving traffic at it requires the matching private key, which means the address is a claim that can be proved or not proved and nothing in between. Everything else people use to judge a link, familiarity, ranking, the reputation of whoever posted it, how confident the page looks, is decoration on top of that single fact.
So the useful question is not whether a link looks right. It is what the channel that delivered it is capable of establishing. Once you ask that, most sources turn out to establish nothing at all, which sounds bleak until you notice it makes the decision simple. If the channel proves nothing, you check. Every time, the same way.
The source grades
Every channel below has its own page explaining how it works, the specific attack it enables, and how to use it without getting hurt. The short version fits in one table.
| Channel | What it proves | Risk alone | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search results | Nothing | High | Ranking measures links and clicks, never key ownership. |
| Link directories | Nothing on its own | High | A list is only as current as whoever last touched it. |
| Forum posts | Nothing | High | Accounts are bought, borrowed and taken over. |
| Chat and messaging | Nothing | Severe | No market runs support or announcements there at all. |
| Wikis and community lists | Nothing | Moderate | Open editing means the last edit decides what you read. |
| Archives and caches | What was true then | Moderate | A faithful copy of a page that has since expired. |
| Clearnet onion gateways | Nothing | Severe | The operator makes the request and sees everything you send. |
| Someone you trust | Nothing | Moderate | Honesty is not the same as having checked. |
| Paste and dump sites | Nothing | High | Anonymous, undated, unattributable by design. |
What this site is not
It is not a link list that asks you to trust it. This page shows three addresses at the top like every other site in this space, and by its own argument those addresses prove nothing either. That is not a contradiction, it is the point. Treat them as a lead worth checking rather than an answer, exactly as you should treat any address from anywhere.
It also takes no money from any market, carries no advertising, and has no affiliate arrangement. That matters here more than in most subjects, because the standard business model for a site covering this ground is to be paid by what it covers, and readers have no way to tell from the outside which sites do.
Start here
If you have a link in front of you right now and want to know whether to use it, read the checking section first and come back to the source grades afterwards.
Common questions
Is there one permanent Nexus address?
No, and a permanent one would be worse. A stable address is a stable target, it can be flooded indefinitely, and it teaches people to stop checking. What stays stable is the method, which is verifying a signature on arrival.
Which source is the safest?
None of them establish anything on their own, which is the honest answer. Archives come closest to being useful because they at least tell you what was true at a stated date, and that is still not the same as current.
Why do you show addresses if addresses prove nothing?
Because you need somewhere to start, and a lead you are told to check is more honest than a lead presented as an answer. The addresses at the top of every page here come with the same warning attached.