I remember when SR1 was online, the thought of an exit scam. Maybe it's because I was dumb and young, but I had no qualms sending encrypted messages, FEinf and the most security I ever took was using the markets encryption. Hell, I often used my my SR1 wallet as my primary wallet, becauee exit scams just weren't something on my mind. Nothing bad ever happened until Nuclues I think, never got scammed or had btc stolen til Nucleus went down.
And the selection- ho boy. So many listings, and I saw awesome shit. Besides the guns, explosives and fake passports that may or may not be honey pots, they had some interesting drugs. And 2c you wanted, 5meo dmt, hell even a bottle of unopened methadrine from the 50s. Even PCP!
Then it got worse. Agrora and a few others stood out, but as time has gone on markets longevity has been on the steep decline. Alphabay was an anomaly, no one thought it would last that long. Now it seems like the average time line now for a market is a few months back. The selection is pathetic, and the tone of the sub has changed from sarcastic and trollt but still helpful to just plain old insulting.
What happened? Did the busts fracture the community? Have people just up and left the scene as it's gotten riskier? Whose behind these seemly increasing incidents of mass DDOS attacks? Why are they doing this now when the silk road, which I think has facilitated more deals than any other market, was dominating the scene?
What do you guys think?
Unfortunatelly most of the folks who run these markets done see it as a community like we do. They see an opportunity to get rich when they eventually exit.