https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/27/22748317/darkmarket-closure-international-arrests-operation-dark-huntor
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.