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> Before then, you couldn't throw a stone without coming upon CP(I avoided it like the plague but knew it was there), you could buy literally any drug on the Si

> Before then, you couldn't throw a stone without coming upon CP(I avoided it like the plague but knew it was there), you could buy literally any drug on the Silk Road safely, and you could easily find bomb-making and asymmetric warfare information. Nowadays? Not so much. I'm sure CP existed and exists on the dark web, but I think it's an exaggeration to say "you couldn't throw a stone without coming upon CP". A few years back I spent quite a bit of time on tor (research purposes), and thankfully never once just stumbled upon CP - I'm sure it's there, but you're going to have to go looking for it. While Silk Road isn't around any more, other drug marketplaces pop up as soon as one dissappears - it's still very, very easy to buy any drug you want. Next day delivery of heroism? Easy. You've 3 big threats with buying drugs on the darkweb though: 1) The site pulling an exit scam, dissappearing with all the escrowed funds 2) Your seller pulling an exit scam, taking money for as long as possible without sending any drugs, then leaving the market 3) The site being compromised by the feds - it's actually quite difficult to run a watertight site on the darkweb, so this does happen

TheAdamAndChe 6y ago
I think it's an exaggeration to say "you couldn't throw a stone without coming upon CP". It was on every single Hidden Wiki at the time.. it _was_ everywhere, and commonly linked to from sites like 4chan. other drug marketplaces pop up Sure, but nothing like the Silk Road. In a winner-take-all market like the online marketplace market, you would expect a top dog to emerge. When did you do your research? The difference I noticed began late 2012.
- GordonS 6y ago
  It was post Silk Road that I started reading researching - I forget exactly, but may around 2015/2016? There were huge markets after Silk Road, though admittedly I don't know how size compared to Silk Road (e.g. AlphaBay, Agora, Nucleus, Hansa).
  - qes 6y ago
    AlphaBay was like 10x the size of the original Silk Road. DNM's haven't been the same since the busts of AlphaBay and Hansa in close succession.
- Taek 6y ago
  Can corroborate, 2012 is when I stopped using Tor for anonymity because a lot of busts happened all in a row. Every bust had some sort of Silk Road style clearnet mistake associated with it, but parallel construction felt like the real answer. A bunch of sites that had been fine for years don't suddenly all make tiny fatal mistakes at the same time. I'm sure any operators that didn't get busted realized the heat had showed up and chose to shut down. When you are facing 20 years in jail you don't need hard evidence that Tor is broken to decide to walk away.
Raphmedia 6y ago
I spent one single night exploring the dark web in 2011, stumbled on that on the first night. Scrubbed my drives, poured bleach in my eyes and swore off TOR forever. I'd agree that at the time, it was rampant. However, it was during the same time that the FBI had set up their Operation Torpedo so it's quite possible those were heavily advertised on purpose as a trap. Either way, it's sickening and another proof that we can't have nice things. Give a dark-web to mankind and the first thing they do is upload disgusting illegal porn to it (I am not talking about kinks but actual criminal activity).
Andrex 6y ago
> Next day delivery of heroism? Easy. Damn, screw my "hero's journey," this sounds way more straightforward. :P

TheAdamAndChe 6y ago

I think it's an exaggeration to say "you couldn't throw a stone without coming upon CP". It was on every single Hidden Wiki at the time.. it _was_ everywhere, and commonly linked to from sites like 4chan. other drug marketplaces pop up Sure, but nothing like the Silk Road. In a winner-take-all market like the online marketplace market, you would expect a top dog to emerge. When did you do your research? The difference I noticed began late 2012.

GordonS 6y ago
It was post Silk Road that I started reading researching - I forget exactly, but may around 2015/2016? There were huge markets after Silk Road, though admittedly I don't know how size compared to Silk Road (e.g. AlphaBay, Agora, Nucleus, Hansa).
- qes 6y ago
  AlphaBay was like 10x the size of the original Silk Road. DNM's haven't been the same since the busts of AlphaBay and Hansa in close succession.
Taek 6y ago
Can corroborate, 2012 is when I stopped using Tor for anonymity because a lot of busts happened all in a row. Every bust had some sort of Silk Road style clearnet mistake associated with it, but parallel construction felt like the real answer. A bunch of sites that had been fine for years don't suddenly all make tiny fatal mistakes at the same time. I'm sure any operators that didn't get busted realized the heat had showed up and chose to shut down. When you are facing 20 years in jail you don't need hard evidence that Tor is broken to decide to walk away.

Raphmedia 6y ago

I spent one single night exploring the dark web in 2011, stumbled on that on the first night. Scrubbed my drives, poured bleach in my eyes and swore off TOR forever. I'd agree that at the time, it was rampant. However, it was during the same time that the FBI had set up their Operation Torpedo so it's quite possible those were heavily advertised on purpose as a trap. Either way, it's sickening and another proof that we can't have nice things. Give a dark-web to mankind and the first thing they do is upload disgusting illegal porn to it (I am not talking about kinks but actual criminal activity).

Andrex 6y ago

> Next day delivery of heroism? Easy. Damn, screw my "hero's journey," this sounds way more straightforward. :P