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AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

justice.gov

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Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#31

Post by gwicks56 »

Miner49er wrote: post #12

"'The so-called anonymity of the dark web is illusory,' said Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg of the DEA." I wonder if this is true, or simply hyperbole. I'm extremely curios on the technical details of this bust. Edit: It appears that some info can be found here https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/982821/downlo... . Look at the section "Alexandre Cazes: Alphabay's Founder and Operator" It looks like t…

Maybe. In any case involving TOR, I would not dismiss the possibility of parallel construction.

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#32

Post by starlust2 »

Romanulus wrote: post #14
B1narySunset wrote: post #6

This won't stop people who want drugs from buying them. What it'll do is prevent some people from buying them from reputable sellers with positive feedback. Now they might have to find some shady dealer who could be selling them rat poison.

Why is 'selling poison instead of drugs' even a logical scare-tactic? Wouldn't even the shadiest of dealers want to keep their customers/hosts/victims around to, you know, keep bleeding money?

Dealers sell whatever they get. Users will generally buy whatever the dealers have. Most people don't test their drugs so they don't have any idea or just don't care what they're actually using. For example, some estimates are that >60% of "molly" in the U.S. is really bathsalts or meth.

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#33

Post by colecut »

hackerboos wrote: post #30
Veelox wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a little bit of an exaggeration, there are going to be a lot of people that will get caught and a lot that will get away. The point of the statement is to reduce confidence in dark net markets so they are more likely to fail.

Hansa has already taken AB's place.

....aaaand it's gone

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#35

Post by colecut »

anoonmoose wrote: post #27
rmwaite wrote: post #2

Don't these people know that they will never kill this. Just like Napster's death, and oink, and what, and so on. Every time they shut one of these down the next one will be harder to shut down.

I mean, you say that, but after having oink go down on me, and more recently what, I've given up on pirating music, and I have to imagine others have done the same. You might be right about the next one being harder to shut down, maybe, but I would also expect the next one to be smaller because of the changing climate. Edit: I mean, yeah, $10/mo for unlimited streaming was a factor. There are comparisons to the drug…

The ability to stream nearly any music you want for $10/month through multiple services has probably done more for decreasing audio piracy than shutting down torrent sites.

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#36

Post by zaidf »

anoonmoose wrote: post #27
rmwaite wrote: post #2

Don't these people know that they will never kill this. Just like Napster's death, and oink, and what, and so on. Every time they shut one of these down the next one will be harder to shut down.

I mean, you say that, but after having oink go down on me, and more recently what, I've given up on pirating music, and I have to imagine others have done the same. You might be right about the next one being harder to shut down, maybe, but I would also expect the next one to be smaller because of the changing climate. Edit: I mean, yeah, $10/mo for unlimited streaming was a factor. There are comparisons to the drug…

I've given up on pirating music but that is because I no longer need to. I can finally consume music in an easy way for a nominal fee.

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#37

Post by peterwwillis »

They confiscated "millions of dollars" in cryptocurrencies. A similar darkweb site that just got taken down had 2 million euros in cryptocurrency confiscated.

The US federal (not state & local) government will spend over 27 Billion dollars in 2018 on the war on drugs. This site was around 11,739 times smaller than that annual budget. The global drug market was estimated at over 350 Billion in 2009, making the site approximately 152,173 times smaller than the global market.

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#38

Post by ceejayoz »

hackerboos wrote: post #34
colecut wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

....aaaand it's gone

Wow it was up last night. Are Tor hidden services compromised?

Yeah, and anyone who fled there is screwed, as it was already under the control of law enforcement. Whoops!

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#39

Post by lawn »

pero wrote: post #19

Blockchain analysis investment perhaps delivering some ROI. http://www.sandia.gov/news/publications/labnews/articles/201... https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/7xz35e/us-law-enf...

DN users should really start using Monero instead of Bitcoin.

Re: AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

#40

Post by aeorgnoieang »

Romanulus wrote: post #14
B1narySunset wrote: post #6

This won't stop people who want drugs from buying them. What it'll do is prevent some people from buying them from reputable sellers with positive feedback. Now they might have to find some shady dealer who could be selling them rat poison.

Why is 'selling poison instead of drugs' even a logical scare-tactic? Wouldn't even the shadiest of dealers want to keep their customers/hosts/victims around to, you know, keep bleeding money?

Because 'dealers' that aren't interested in maintaining a 'going concern' could possibly make a quick buck – a 'killing' – in a market without strong info about seller's reputations.
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