> This is why more effort goes into shutting down the marketplaces, but even this has become a war of attrition ever since the Silk Road 1.0 bust. Gwern lists

> This is why more effort goes into shutting down the marketplaces, but even this has become a war of attrition ever since the Silk Road 1.0 bust. Gwern lists at least 20 active Darknet markets: https://www.gwern.net/Black-market%20survival https://www.gwern.net/Black-market%20survival - I don't think law enforcement will ever get rid of Darknet markets. The important point is that every time law enforcement removes one marketplace, customers are forced to visit the next one that's still online, thus increasing their revenue, effectively strengthening the strongest competitors every time they make a bust. The weakest marketplace is wiped out by law enforcement - leaving behind increasingly resilient markets - and new ones appear all the time, adding to the number of markets at the same time they're growing more resilient. It's a fight against evolution that I can't possible see anyone winning.