Do We Need a New Dark Net Business Model?

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


Comments


[52 Points] ajax_jives:

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.


[12 Points] 52870923846539465:

Stripping down the centralization as much as possible makes it more like dealing on the street. What sets a vendor on the DNM apart from someone pushing dope on the corner? The network of trust and safety (not to say you all those on the grind are untrustworthy).

When I imagine the future of the DNM I see each vendor having their own personal website along with proof that they are part of a reliable network of vendors who practice good opsec and have a safe product.

Imagine something like what the JoR has.


[5 Points] Leon_9461:

Really, all thats needed is a legally bound escrow company set up to act as non-beneficiary to either party upon release of payment that we trust can't exit scam because of their transparency while maintaining the upmost opacity when it comes to personal information they can disclose even forcibly under legal seizure (aka regularly multi-wiped databases or almost no identity used when registering inc. no logs) that essentially act as the market but in a format that pleads total ignorance to anything other than the agreed holding of assets on behalf of one party, to be handed over on contract completion.


[3 Points] TheLastCig:

Remember, change is important, those who resist change are often left behind.

This man, this.

Only some will see the light, maybe that is how it should be?


[3 Points] beatenangels:

Your ignoring many important functions that markets provide. Sure if you already have established trust with a vendor you can direct deal. However markets serve as a utility for searching for new vendors in case your trusted ones don't carry the product you need. They can serve as mediators or escrow systems to prevent scams. In cases like CGMC they vet vendors to prevent scamming.

You seem to want every vendor to have thier own .onion site. While this helps decentralize it doesn't provide much more than dealing through email but adds a ton of potential issues. Who's hosting the servers? Every vendor must understand the technical aspects of web hosting and opsec.

As it is larger vendors do separate look at GG for example.

Finally you propose that we need solutions to deal with LE. I think this premise is wrong. Look at the recent takedowns sure the market was temporarily disrupted but smaller markets grew and took the place of alphabay and hansa. The community itself is already prepared to quickly adapt and change services taking thier vendor client relationships to a new market.


[2 Points] BronkoBronkowitsch:

Yes, we need a new model. The perfect centralized marketplace was "The Marketplace". At first it was hosted on I2P only. It allowed only Multi-Sig-Escrow. The owner did rip off anbody. The new model will be decentralized. OpenBazaar and Particl are the most promising for me. Just support or use the projects.


[2 Points] ecstasais:

Well, there's still one model that hasn't been used yet but has a lot of potential: Fully de-centralised yet moderated P2P-market. No, not OpenBazaar or any other running on blockchains or on the clearnet (even if accessible from Tor too)


[1 Points] dnmthrowawayobvious:

In my mind innovation in relation to DNMs will be the same as it is in any field. No one could have pictured the iPhone X 15 years ago, no one will have any idea how the DNMs will look like in 10-15 years.

The current model is fairly successful as long as the market admins/vendors don't get a huge ego. I feel the future will be people like JOR who think they will revolutionize the world by what they are doing. In a broad sense one could only hope drug laws will be relaxed in the future making it unnecessary to have DNMs at all. We can call them CNM (clear net markets).


[1 Points] USPSDirect:

multinational and including many countries is redundant.


[1 Points] Vespco:

You want every vendor to host their own site, do the marketing, security, and anonymity related to the website? LOL sounds efficient. Great idea. Most drug dealers know how to properly setup their own TOR hidden service and host it anonymously.


[1 Points] None:

you just need patience.


[1 Points] None:

[removed]


[1 Points] None:

I don't know enough about economic theory to offer much, but effective police tactics definitely include false rumours and organized chaos. Only a fool would think those aren't factors, though to what level I sure as shit don't know. Ask yourself how you would go about breaking up a anonomized and encrypted market, and those are two of the first ideas that should come up. The only vendor I've had long enough relationship with to trust with their own market is LG, but greed has a way of affecting us all. I don't know the answer, but if it will help i'll go crank on off for the movement. I believe it will be a girl girl evening. Now should I use sock or tissue. Yeah, like I'd tell


[1 Points] abu7:

Found a good read about hosting hidden services

Thanks to /u/al_eberia


[1 Points] sickleton:

Sounds like a street level drug dealer...


[1 Points] Neutral_User_Name:

this is it guys:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Toroid/


[1 Points] heyfreshhhhh:

OpenBazaar + Monero


[1 Points] Checkyostats123:

How about something like this.

  1. A craigslist version of the darknet. You pay a bond, advertise wears, but no funds are actually exchanged on the website.

  2. You have a forum to go along with said site where people discuss vendors, post reviews, ect...

  3. All deals are done between seller and buyer on legitimate bit coin escrow sites. Obviously there would be some OPSEC involved with this and it would take a certain level of buyer and seller to understand this.

  4. This eliminates exit scams by markets, still possible by vendors but I believe the damage would be mitigated and on a much smaller level.


[1 Points] crustedchlorides:

I don't know where you have been, but this question is asked quite frequently here...

Personally I think that decentralized markets e.g openbaazar is the future of purchasing illegal goods anonymously. I heard they implemented tor support now, we're advancing our ways by the minute.


[1 Points] kekeokeokeoo:

Here’s an idea (i’m not a tech so there might be some elements that aren’t possible to put in place) :

Maybe i’m uttering bullshit so sorry if that’s the case. i would also love to have an explanation of why my idea wouldn’t work