Dear Readers,
For years now we have been buying drugs online. Various markets came and go as we moved forward. It all began with the idea of DPR and the vision of having an anonymous marketplace where traders can trade anonymously. The vision surfaced in the form of Silk Road. Afterwards, many more markets joined this vision.
As these markets grew, so were the law enforcement agencies trying to bring down such markets as part of war on drugs or whatever you call it. Many markets got seized by the LE eventually and the rest exit scammed. At the other end of this, buyers and sellers always suffered due to such negative market impacts.
Alphabay, the biggest markets of its time, along with Hansa gets seized by a multinational task force including many different countries.
Things stayed quite for a month or two, some people get caught in the wake of the events, and then again things starting behaving normally and traders moved to alternative markets such as TradeRoute, Dream, and many others to vend their products. Nevertheless, the threat always remained.
It left me wondering, do we really need stick to our current culture of DarkNet and its characteristics, i.e., using markets to make purchases, the whole vision, or do we need to move forward, innovate the DarkNet, i.e., come up with new ideas to tackle those permanent threats.
All of the markets that we have experienced in the DarkNet starting from Silk Road till the latest one, TradeRoute, are all mere communication tools where the buyer and the seller gets the convenience to communicate. The real business takes place behind the scenes which we all know.
After the July tragedy (AB & Hansa Takedown), now Dream got delisted from the superlist for valid reasons, and now TradeRoute is undergoing some maintenance.
What we all forgot to notice is that the buyers and sellers never changed. Indeed they grew in number but they always knew each other. They built relationships among st them.
So is it the time that we revise this whole Business Model, which includes markets, logistics, and of course security. Do you guys see the idea that you know a person in a country say USA, you trust him fully, you just need to pay him and he will send you the drugs as it has been going on without needing to use any such markets, the role DarkNet plays here is that it keeps you and your activities anonymous. I have heard about something called Openbazaar but not really sure what it is.
EDIT: We need to create the vision. The vision of each vendor having his/her own private market over Dark Net where his clients can buy his products without having any third parties invloved. A network of reliable vendors whose practices are safe and efficient, maintaining the highest OPSEC levels.
Remember, change is important, those who resist change are often left behind.
Thank you for reading this thread and please share your comments/opinions/ideas below in the comment section.
Best Regards, abu7
You suggest a change but don't propose one... Direct deals exist and are preferable, but the market's escrow system hinders scammers and allows vendors to build a trusting client base. Forum markets like OpenBazaar and TMG exist but again, the vendors there built up a trusting client base on markets with escrow.