https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/27/22748317/darkmarket-closure-internationa... Jim Bell's comment: 8 years after Silk Road was shut down, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_%28marketplace%29?wprov=sfla1 I consider it utterly irrational that current dark markets are not routinely protected using an AP (Assassination Politics) kind of protection. I know I suggested this in 2013. While I think that dark markets have done a plausibly good job given their limitations, nevertheless they need to be better. As the movie Dr Strangelove said, "Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy the FEAR to attack." The people who are hunting these markets need to FEAR to find, prosecute, and convict the participants. If a rather large bounty ($100k ?) were placed on the head of anyone doing that, including police, judges and prosecutors, dark markets would become essentially invincible. The risk associated with running or using a dark market would drop to virtually zero. Their costs and prices would drop dramatically, too.