Post-Alphabay speculation: everyone should be extremely careful if AB does come back online, but vendors, VIP & large amount purchasers should clean house anyway.

Please note that the following is a combination of speculation and observation.

First I'd like to comment about Zcash upgrades. Alphabay announced early last month that they would be implementing Zcash on July 1st. It would not make sense that they only started to write the code and implement it days after the day it was supposed to become a public feature.

I've been watching events unfold from the sidelines and I believe that the RCMP/FBI raid in Trois-Rivières was indeed Alphabay. I believe that LE may be holding an admin captive.

What we know:

Shortly after Alphabay went down, an article from tvanouvelles.ca came out saying the following:

It's strange to me that the paid spokespeople for Alphabay didn't get word from the admins until 28 hours after it went down. I believe that LE may have convinced the admin to give them his hard drive encryption password. Even though the news said that there were no arrests, this is not necessarily true. Police are allowed to misdirect and lie to the media, they do this all the time.

I'd like to point out the following two items from the news article:

It seems that the people involved operated in several places around the world. (They know who was involved and that there was more than one person)

"The police also arrested a man in Thailand." (So this news article states that there were multiple arrests)

Now, on to the why you should be concerned bit...

Bitcoin blockchain analysis companies have been building unmasking technologies for the blockchain for years now, and they are quite elaborate and good at their job. I have a feeling that most vendors who were not in the IT field before they started vending will have failed to properly separate the source and destination of their bitcoins, at least a few times. I don't have all night to write this so I hope that /u/wombat2combat and others can help to shed light on this issue, and explain how companies like Chainalysis use KYC/AML laws, along with machine learning to match transactions via tumblers to the person buying BTC or the person cashing out their BTC.

It is entirely possible that if Alphabay comes back online, they will have stripped (re-routed) all tumbling and auto-encryption features to make it appear as though it's operating normally, while actually creating a complex database of metadata and BTC addresses to start investigations on users or vendors transacting more than $XYZ amount.

Please take this to heart.... "There will be others later," said Capt. Camille Habel.

The scary thing is that they are not boasting about their investigation!

Project TITANIUM

Just because no one has ever been arrested due to a BTC transaction does not mean that a large uncloaked tx can't lead to an investigation.

I do hope I'm wrong about this. Be safe everyone.


Comments


[93 Points] svere21:

Good read. Not a shit post like you usually see. Thanks for the condensed run down.


[35 Points] _-________________-_:

they would be implementing Zcash on July 1st.

AB's implementation of other cryptos was mostly B.S., mainly a pump-and-dump for the owners. Buy up monero, then ether, then Zcash, announce the market will accept it, watch the price go up, then sell.

I collected some commissions on AB. I literally did not earn a single commission in anything other than bitcoin. I'm not sure their Ethereum system even worked to begin with.

one man in Thailand leading a lavish lifestyle owning several cars

Variety Jones? ;-)


[18 Points] brightmoor:

"The police also arrested a man in Thailand." (So this news article states that there were multiple arrests)

I don't think that necessarily means there were multiple arrests. I think that it basically just means that they arrested someone in Thailand in addition to performing the raids in Canada. I could be wrong, but that's how I read it.


[18 Points] None:

Thailand is home to a lot of scamming groups, this could have nothing to do with DNMs. The fact that drugs or markets weren't mentioned at all makes me think a scamming group has been taken down.

But meh I'm an optimist


[15 Points] iamfrankfrank:

The important piece of this is that all AB admins except for the dude who got popped may have (at least initially) been in the dark too. I would be extremely wary if I were a high value target for LE.


[13 Points] Potatos500:

Hope they come back so I can just have my money back. I'll take a honeypot over an exit scam any day


[10 Points] None:

Dear Lord. If AB comes back up I promise I will never order drugs again.... from AB

Also, if this new blockchain or whatever scares people away from cryptocurrency won't the price of BTC fall considerably? I hope not.


[12 Points] None:

dude. the lights went out last year at this exact time.day. it was out for three days. july like 14. same with the year before. At one point I just kept hitting refresh, ie. hitting enter for 4 hours at a time. I cannot say which way this cookie will crumble, all I know is it's not the first time the site went silent. and that is my two cents


[7 Points] god-is-lsm:

im going to be dead honest here , if the police got a hold of there server + took Ds or raspi (disc0 is free and im sure safe ) then we are as a community are fucked !!!! this means vendors, buyers , hackers , extortionist .... Anyone that got any monies or had accounts or anything .all your tiny slip up's may come back and bite you in the ass ( THIS INCLUDES REDDIT AS WELL) .. Word of advice to everyone that thinks some shit might go down . Go get you a good lawyer on retainer pay all upfront , clean house , have a nice bond money set aside . This shit is very real .. ive made piles of money doing a laundry list of things on there so yeah . But my last thing to say and i cant stress how real im tring to be and give a fair warning i know you hate when i talk about all this , BUT take it from someone who has extorted DS for money (you have the real drop on them they fold and cough up thousands no prob , snap of a finger 15k payments ) that said !! if the POLICE got him then yeah i for one know he will flip , turn over all he needs to to save his ass .. IN SHORT if the police have the keys then we as a community are fucked . just think of all the shit that came from sr /sr2 . TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT . but i am outs and going to go hide under a rock for a bit . ALSO IF KINGER IS READING THIS IT WOULD BE NICE TO COME OUT AND NOT BE A SHIT HEAD TROLL AND LET THE PEOPLE KNOW HOW deSnake can flip easily , you know for a real second hand account

P.S i know how to spell and yeah i know its cringing grammer but hey better do what you can to cover that track and make other bad habits that arnt really your own .


[7 Points] ksosk:

Great info and breakdown, I appreciate it


[6 Points] 6REDDITACCOUNTBANNED:

I always thought alphabay was Russian.


[3 Points] someguy916:

confirmed AB LE - http://imgur.com/IAtpeL3


[4 Points] 1H03:

SO..i am fucked vending buying and if it magic pop up , My luck coin will be there but tin foil and a warrant attached to it , I hope there not reverse tumbling certain shite ahh,, if me coin comes back I'll buy who ever helps me get through whatever I just want 1ounce of weed and some pills so I ddont throw myself off a fuccking bridge .. be pawning shit to pay back debts on customers escrow and funds also held in buyer account for a big buy for a friend which A)explain and ruin the "Plug" B)Pay that fat bartarted fuck back say my guy is gone to fucking belize not like he'd get it anyway ... Best luck give fucks stay alert stay safe!


[4 Points] ThrowitoutASAP:

why are all these sketchy people always in/move to Thailand??


[3 Points] geotristan:

Two days later an article was published about a German child porn on the dark net being taken down called "elysium" maybe this article actually has two do with this that one.


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[2 Points] god-is-lsm:

Also this is why i think you never saw Alpha02 face in the paper all over the place after all im positive hes been caught . he took a trip to spain and fell of the face of the earth after that . It all match's the time he got doxxed ... Alpha02 pulled a defcon been saying it for like a year and some change now .. but the worse thing ever that can happen to a person .........the fucking usa's fbi gots all this which means they will go all over the world to find them .. not good also explains why DS was all bugged about saying " the fbi can read this"


[2 Points] god-is-lsm:

dude raspi is the fucking Canadian ! who remembers that he was a hockey betting junkie ..wow

its explains why disc0 would say "DNMToTheRescue: If your dispute was with Raspi, please create a support ticket, or send a PM to the new moderator 3122 and include your order number. " raspi ,must have been busted like a day or 2 before and was mia or gave up the server / slashed maintain the server


[2 Points] GloranthanHector:

There have been huge operations in Europe as well. I THINK alphabay down might being related to a international crackdown on DNM


[2 Points] 39484824:

Take this for what you want. FUD or drug fueled ramblings, this is up to you. I have some information that I am convinced off and all it needs is time to be proven right. AlphaBay is not over, the downtime is part of a larger operation or even ploy. There will be a bloodbath, and anyone who did not use PGP (auto-encryption does not count) or did not tumble will be in deep trouble within the matter of weeks. Speculate about this all you want. My advice: look for small inconsistencies, you do not have to take my word to become paranoid enough to at least take pre-cautions right now. Start tumbling and start using PGP (no brainer). And if you did not do any of those in the past, lawyer up and cover your traces.


[2 Points] None:

[deleted]


[2 Points] opiateconnect_:

Well my friends. This is very unsettling.


[1 Points] None:

[deleted]


[1 Points] SecondChanceUsername:

If they had intenions on Scamming, why didn't they do it 6weeks ago when it was 500usd higher and cash out their stolen jackpot then??...


[1 Points] god-is-lsm:

i also have proof ive spoken to an admin of AB recently , we will need a verified member of the community u/murderhomelesspeople to verify that his post was made the day after this happened via his time stamp .. some thing had to be taken out . but here the proof :

PROOF: http://imgur.com/a/iCTJA

also if the only mod around here that isnt corrupt and worth a shit and take a look and verify u/wombat2combat


[1 Points] SloppyJoeLieberman:

Where will I get my beach sand now?!


[-1 Points] None:

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