Let me put on my tin foil hat on real quick but let's just say Agora knows something we don't & felt like it would be best to shut down for a while.
What if there's another crackdown coming soon, it happened in November of last year which would make it a bit early but LE is known to strike again right?
For those of you who are new to the DNM game last year there was a global DNM crackdown when several sites were seized (Silk Road 2.0 being one of them) & many others, you can read more here
I guess no one can know for sure but think about when was the last DNM bust? These markets aren't such of a secret as they use to be, we've been getting a lot of media attention not to mention even a movie was recently made where they openly talk about markets, bitcoins etc. LE needs to keep the high ups happy & the only way to do that is to seize sites + make arrests.
Hope I'm wrong probably just FUD but everyone please be safe & stay vigilante, also remember to always use PGP!
~Peace
If Agora had advance knowledge of a multi-agency operation about to execute they would not have invented this pause story. They would just go dark and say nothing while packing their bags for winter in Cozumel. Risking an obstruction charge or pissing off a an inside source like that defies all logic.
An orderly pause, seems to me, is exactly what they say. They are incredibly paranoid and maybe are being impetuous. The risk of ruin (life and wealth) suddenly has a real number assigned to it after all this time. If they are an emerging market they would take chances. But to admins with substantial coin saved with never a hack or arrest, suddenly a pause is a fucking great idea!
Backopy paused 4 times near the end. We always message and post bombed him to stick it out and almost challenged him in a way that he felt like a pussy for his panic attacks. But once real people start seeing real jail cells, it is pretty easy to imagine the positive expected value of a clean break. ANYONE who admins, vends, or even just buys is almost certainly going to get caught eventually.
All I can say and think is imagine what Ross is saying to himself right now!! Liberal ideals aside he totally realizes what a fucking cunt and asshole he is for trading an $85,000,000 nest egg for completely and utterly relying on your mom to send you an allowance so you can get some salted snacks once a week.
What would you do?
Sometimes a pause is just a pause.