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1. An Introduction to Darknet Market Maximalism#
Somewhere along the way, it’s difficult to say when, the counterculture became subverted. What was once a scary, upending technological discovery has shape-shifted into a sensationalist gambling vehicle. Gadsden flags have been replaced by price charts, and the cypherpunks are drowned out by social media influencers. Many of the old-timers still cling to the belief that the complete erosion of Bitcoin’s aura hasn’t occurred, that the collaboration with traditional finance is actually a good thing, that applications for nation-state strategic reserves show maturation and legitimacy, and that escaping the so-called decrepit origins of the Silk Road means Bitcoin can finally become global money. But we all know that is a farce, because what was once branded as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system has now become nothing more than a glorified tech stock.
And that is why I propose darknet market maximalism.
Now let me be clear: this is not an endorsement of illicit activity, nor is it encouragement to commit crime. Rather, it’s an acknowledgement that the largest group of people who depend on peer-to-peer cryptocurrency are the individuals participating in internet black markets, and that by extension, if we imagine a situation that calls for a private and battletested form of digital currency, it would logically follow what is being adopted in underground drug economies. Consider: what type of person uses cryptocurrency as a utility and not as a savings account? Who stresses out knowing that they don’t have access to cryptocurrency? Who takes cryptocurrency seriously, as a matter of freedom or incarceration, and not as some silly meme? The answer happens to be the individuals that make up these dark net marketplaces, because if cryptocurrency were to magically disappear, the underground internet economy would collapse overnight. Uncensorable digital cash has made it so the average Joe can do things that are not approved by governments, and this has tremendous worldwide implications, such as the successful deterrent of things like price discrimination, data mining, or targeted advertising. It is likewise now possible to donate to political movements around the world in a safe and anonymous manner, and to do so with an encrypted net worth, the proof of which is only made visible by your secret key and your conscious decision of whether or not you want to disclose such information. Despite the complete takeover of every mainstream financial instrument or medium, the state has little control over peer-to-peer cash node networks hosted by passionate volunteers around the world, and this isn’t the result of billions of dollars of investment by nation states, but by the determination of crypto anarchists embedded in open-source communities. In fact, Bitcoin was created one fateful day by one of these anonymous enthusiasts who happened to be lurking a cypherpunk mailing list. It is arguably the greatest open-source achievement in history, and we are still coming to terms with it.
I understand that the dark web has notoriety and stigma, but this is real-world usage. This is adoption based entirely on peer-to-peer cash. It’s a measuring stick that we can point to and say is happening. It isn’t some speculative pipe dream, the kind that fills those dreadful cryptocurrency podcasts that clamor for a world run by the blockchain. It’s reality, and the ones who are avoiding having this conversation about it are not worth the time of day. Some may protest and say that this association is detrimental, but these individuals do not understand the game that is being played: because from the perspective of the state, a law-abiding citizen who advocates for privacy is seen as dangerous as the junkie who is trying to score his next fix. So while the polarizing brand of a ‘darknet market maximalist’ may make some squeamish, it is nothing more than a reflection of how they view you.
I must confide to the dear reader that the term darknet market maximalism is a tongue-in-cheek troll. I am fully aware that the outsider will read the title of this manifesto and immediately jump to the erroneous conclusion that we are all hell-bent on overthrowing the government, that we are all criminals, or perhaps even cyber terrorists. But this writing is not for them. We are cypherpunks who advocate for free and open-source software, and we understand the long battle that lies ahead. They already brand us as the bad guys with something to hide, and for that reason we playfully acknowledge this, we lean into it, and we frame the conversation as to why free and open-source software would even have this stigma to begin with. Plus, there are so many different types of “maximalists” these days that it’s easy to lose track. For example, I can just as easily refer to myself as a digital cash maximalist or a privacy maximalist. But in this age where attention is hard to grab, sometimes something that is shocking, especially something with reason behind it, is important to get people to take notice. Because similarly, the explosion of darknet markets in the early 2010s caused an enormous amount of interest in Bitcoin. And so by bringing darknet market usage into focus, we add an edge to cryptocurrency that has been forgotten but is wholly necessary for the long term proliferation of parallel economies that threaten the status quo of fiat currency.
Before I finish this introduction, I would like to take a second to acknowledge the ones today who do use cryptocurrency, who do promote parallel economies, and who willfully push for adoption. Even though I may have differing opinions on certain things, I truly am appreciative that there are those that still carry the torch. Because it is not true, in any sense of the claim, that cryptocurrency is only for illicit use. But unfortunately, we are outnumbered, quite tremendously, I might add. The overwhelming majority of cryptocurrency use today has become speculative gambling, and it is only going to get worse unless we push back. The silly paradox is that after rebranding cryptocurrency into a friendly ecosystem that isn’t just for criminals, we’ve lost the world-changing intensity that made peer-to-peer cash so powerful in the first place. And because of that, we must turn things back to their roots, and become darknet market maximalists.
2. On Moonboyism#
Before we can understand why the darknet market maximalist is enlightened, we must examine the root of all of cryptocurrency’s problems—the moonboy. Contrary to what you may think, the problems facing cryptocurrency are not, for example, regulatory battles with the state, technological limitations of the blockchain, or the need for improving public opinion on cryptocurrency. These three issues, among others, are only problematic from the perspective of the moonboy. But from the perspective of the darknet market maximalist, the real issue is the unavoidable human condition of greed, and there is no better example of that than the loud and pathetic underclass of moonboys, whose participation in cryptocurrency amounts to feverish speculation and chart-watching. The dire situation that peer-to-peer cash finds itself in is the direct result of this ongoing 51% attack of public opinion by the moonboy, who has done everything to erode the soul of cryptocurrency over the past decade.
The moonboy is a cypherpunk in name only, advertising their love for Satoshi in vain attempts to appear cultured. They are fraudulent, arrogant, tribalistic, and gullible. Many of them spend no time learning about free and open-source software, choosing instead to indulge in proprietary slop, their sole contributions to the ecosystem being their retweets of GIFs of roller coasters during the unpredictable market cycles of cryptocurrency. They are complacent and believe politicians with photoshops of laser eyes care about them. But here is the worst part of it—because of their insatiable greed, they become overleveraged in hopes of great material gain. And this debt causes the moonboy to become easily manipulated, leading them to make decisions against the idealism that cryptocurrency was created to benefit.
Our distaste for moonboyism is not a disapproval of investment. There is a clear and rational investment strategy with many cryptocurrency assets due to the property of scarcity. There are investors, for example, who encourage holding cold storage who are good people and valuable contributors to the community. The moonboy, however, is the vocal majority of cryptocurrency holders today, drawn by the volatile free market, which encourages the potentially “face-melting gains” that could let them become the next Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Even worse, while having this degenerate, gambling attitude, they believe they are acting from a position of virtue due to their endorsement of Satoshi and the now watered-down worldview that the early cypherpunks pushed for. The moonboy is a hypocrite to their core, co-opting the term Bitcoiner to now mean pro-censorship and pro-state, so long as it guarantees the safety of their returns.
Let’s circle back and review the three aforementioned “problems” facing cryptocurrency and demonstrate how the viewpoints of the moonboy and the darknet market maximalist differ:
Problem One: Government regulations create uncertainty about cryptocurrency.
The moonboy – “If the government passes certain legislation, it would lead to my cryptocurrency being valued more/less. If a compromise can be reached, we are moving in the right direction.”
The darknet market maximalist – “We are concerned with preserving civil liberties and will fight tooth and nail to defend them. There will be no compromises.”
Problem Two: Technological limitations of the blockchain prevent widespread adoption.
The moonboy – “We must do everything we can to become a global currency, even if it means endorsing proprietary software, because more people means my bags will be worth more.”
The darknet market maximalist – “It is fundamentally true that the blockchain is not great for worldwide adoption without centralization. Therefore, we will continue to organically grow and improve without bending the knee to these centralized solutions out of concern for our liberty.”
Problem Three: Public opinion on cryptocurrency is negative due to a lack of trust fueled by volatility and scams.
The moonboy – “We must continue promoting cryptocurrency to build trust so long term we get more people to buy, because my cryptocurrency will be worth more and they too can become rich.”
The darknet market maximalist – “Building parallel economies is the goal. If people aren’t interested in peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, that’s okay, but we should explain the benefits of peer-to-peer cash and lead by example.”
We could go on, but the point should be clear: on the one hand you have a lifestyle of greed cosplaying as idealism, and on the other a grounded examination of the free market driven by idealism. In other words, the darknet market maximalist recognizes that the pursuit of Satoshi’s dream of peer-to-peer cash has made them a target of the state and that the mob that drives the narrative of public opinion is following the invisible hand of greed. These two groups cannot coexist with each other and, due to the populist standing held by the moonboys, the darknet market maximalist is driven out of discussion by means of censorship.
Perhaps the best way of summarizing the differences between these two groups is the darknet itself. How do the two groups view peer-to-peer cash being used on darknet markets for illicit purposes?
The moonboy – “The darknet represents a time in the early days of cryptocurrency. We’ve grown past that. Yes, criminals use cryptocurrency on darknet markets, but there is so much more value that cryptocurrency can bring. The association is toxic.”
The darknet market maximalist – “The darknet is the oldest and largest peer-to-peer market dependent on cryptocurrency, and observations of cryptocurrency usage in these battle-tested markets reveal what projects are considered the most powerful to study, because as computer usage continues to become further centralized and proprietary, the freedom of open-source peer-to-peer projects, such as digital cash, must be preserved.”
The moonboy is not necessarily wrong, as there are many different use cases for cryptocurrency that go beyond buying drugs on the internet. However, the moonboy fails to understand the powerful implications of peer-to-peer cash and the lengthy war of privacy rights that awaits us ahead. Why is this the case? It is because the moonboy will not fight the state, so this is not a concern to them. To the moonboy, the preservation of liberties plays second fiddle to the growth of their investment, so any association with illicit activities is heresy. There is no reason for them to vocalize anything against the state, and when regulations come crashing down they will go in line with what they are told.
But the cypherpunk, who is aligned with the darknet market maximalist, embraces the legal battle and openly talks about the documented illicit use of cryptocurrency. Why, you may ask? Because they are aware of the game being played. By adhering to darknet markets, they frame the conversation on their terms, because they understand that the state views our push for liberty as an annoyance that must be crushed. The darknet market maximalist understands that it is the goal of the state to promote the growth of moonboyism and to censor the dissidents and that playing nice is not worth it. So let’s draw a line in the sand: if usage of peer-to-peer cash by association makes me a criminal, then I am a criminal. The darknet market maximalist cosigns that statement, viewing the free market in a cold and impartial manner, and the moonboy recoils in horror, equating that sort of idealism to an unnecessary confrontation that is contrary to why they ever bought cryptocurrency in the first place.
3. Michael Saylor, the Pied Piper#
We have now defined moonboyism as a speculative mob that has distanced itself from the tenets of libertarianism. But how are they controlled? The moonboy, like moths to the flame, seeks out a leader who tells them that their greed is noble, and what better representative of this phenomenon than Michael Saylor, the pied piper of the moonboys? Within only several years, Saylor has hijacked Bitcoin to the point where he has become the defacto leader despite his vocal distancing from the libertarian philosophy cryptocurrency was built on. In an interview last year, Saylor declared his belief as to how Bitcoin’s medium of exchange is a dated concept and how Bitcoin custody should be left to the control of centralized exchanges, the same entities known for data collection and fractional reserve lending. These shocking statements received several days of pushback on Twitter, with many cryptocurrency influencers crafting carefully worded tweets admonishing this rhetoric. The result? Saylor posted a brief apology statement, and all was forgiven. How sweet it is to be king! The pied piper has enticed the moonboys with dreams of economic prosperity, and idealism be damned because now he has majority rule.
On Saylor’s Twitter page, he has a pinned tweet of his atrocious poetry—the one that talks about cyber hornets—and you just know he looks at that all the time like it’s something to be proud of. He likewise often waxes poetic about Bitcoin being “digital energy” on stage in front of crowds of thousands of people, spewing clumsy metaphors in attempts at romanticizing Bitcoin as a sort of religion. However, Saylor’s influence expands beyond the lowly moonboy serfs, reaching all the way to the regional dukes and duchesses who carry relative influence in this economy of delusion. This is routinely brought to light in the yearly Bitcoin conferences but recently made all the more embarrassing at Saylor’s “100k New Year’s Party.” The event, held at Saylor’s mansion, amounted to a pathetic role-play of The Great Gatsby, with Saylor giddily giving the affluent guests a tour of the estate filled with his luxuries. To the moonboy, a golden ticket to this party would be “making it.” They aspire to be recognized as an astute investor who is wiser than all the other fools. But for the darknet market maximalist, this is but a summary of how rotten things have gotten, a portrait of the desperate fantasy played out in the minds of the moonboys that one day they too will be in Saylor’s position, with thousands of underlings jealous of the success of their big-brained investing.
Saylor’s contributions to Bitcoin have been doubling and tripling down on the wretched mentality of “HODL” culture, which espouses that the only use case of Bitcoin is one of buying and holding on for dear life. The only thing that matters to Saylor is for his followers to accumulate Bitcoin and to sell their kidneys if they are lacking liquidity. This creates an interesting paradox: how can Bitcoin be the future of money if nobody wants to actually use it? The advocates of the store of value use case point to Gresham’s law, arguing that the hardest form of money will be removed from circulation. This would be fine if Bitcoin had characteristics of fungibility (it doesn’t), or if its security model wasn’t based on transaction fees (it is), or if there wasn’t a concerted effort to centralize the software that is used by Bitcoiners. The results of the Saylor mindset have been hoarding, empty blocks, endorsement of proprietary solutions, and the crucial reliance on the value of Bitcoin going up. One can hope that eventually the cult of personality surrounding Saylor will get its comeuppance, but even if the house of cards were to fall, behind Saylor is an entire cohort ready to take his place, and inevitably the moonboys will elect their next leader because it is against their nature to ever think for themselves.
Cryptocurrency is dominated by moonboys, and the pied pier Saylor is a reflection of that. Considering how Saylor hasn’t been tarred and feathered by the Bitcoin community but rather exalted and embraced is all you need to know about the current state of affairs. It’s a wonder why this fraud, with his billions of dollars, never thought to solidify the defense of Samourai Wallet or Tornado Cash with the best legal team money can buy. Why isn’t he likewise helping spearhead a lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill for privacy and freedom for those who use cryptocurrency as digital cash? Why does he only ever talk about buying Bitcoin and not being a reasonable individual who can occasionally take profits or use Bitcoin? You know the answer. It’s because he doesn’t care about Bitcoin, or freedom, or any of those things. The Saylor swindle is a game of musical chairs where the only winners playing are the ones lucky enough to get out while they are ahead. We are in the middle of the game now, which of course, is rigged for him to come in first place.
I imagine there are readers who find my tone to be elitist, and I don’t disagree. Cryptocurrency as a whole is in need of criticism and introspection, especially from those who are staunch advocates of digital cash. How tiresome it is, watching the community from the sidelines, with so-called journalists and podcasters jockeying for relevance by shilling whatever cryptocurrency scam gives them attention or money. It’s even worse to see the public blindly follow the pied piper Saylor, whose enchanting song plays into the hopes and dreams of the desperate moonboy who has seemingly nothing else to look forward to in their lives. But don’t confuse pretentious viewpoints with an unwillingness to help! If you happen to be suffering from a bout of moonboyism, yet you still have a shred of dignity, you will gradually become inspired to learn and improve, and along the way the privacy experts will be happy to point you in the right direction. There have never been more resources to learn about privacy and how you can protect yourself, and it goes without saying that one of the greatest investments you can make towards your future is in your education of how to fight back against the surveillance state. Take it one step at a time, harden every facet of your opsec, and learn the enemy inside and out. And as time passes, you will stand alongside the other jaded cypherpunks who have become darknet market maximalists, scratching their heads in bewilderment while Saylor makes a fool of himself yet again before his mob of supporters.
4. The Global Adoption Grift#
What Saylor and company do to seduce the moonboy is to play up their fantasy, which is a hypothetical world dependent on the scarce asset of Bitcoin, with claims that the moonboy will be seated in the citadel, shielded from the unworthy nocoiners who must grovel at their feet for some spare sats to be thrown in their direction. This leads us to what is perhaps the biggest lie peddled by cryptocurrency influencers—global adoption. For many, this leap of faith is taken for granted. It’s inevitable, surely, that fiat currency will fail, that dollars will become useless, that all trust will be lost, and wheelbarrows of cash will be needed to buy loaves of bread. It surely must happen that, one day, people will unanimously embrace cryptocurrency as their source of savings and income. That the parasitic elites who have controlled our economies for hundreds of years will concede their political clout for the greater good. That the entire might of all nation-states will crumble under the power of Bitcoin, and they will bend the knee and declare that Satoshi is King, and that we will all hold hands and sing Kumbaya in a new era of peace.
If you believe this, you are probably in an echo chamber.
As we have already seen, every aspect of peer-to-peer digital cash that makes it an assault on the strength of the nation-state has been attacked, neutered, and infiltrated. Fiat currency is not going to go away quietly, and the general public goes along and will continue to go along with what the government tells them to do because it is safe, and people like to feel safe. And so, the state-endorsed narrative regarding Bitcoin is that it is a digital asset, not a form of peer-to-peer cash. The spotlight is shown on Michael Saylor and Senator Lummis, who give pathetic stump speeches on CNBC with their interest firmly set on future collaboration with the traditional financial system. The moonboy mob goes along with the circus because the number continues to go upwards, and all the while the media implies that the usecase of a medium of exchange is a relic of the clumsy cypherpunk origins. Any hint of the counter culture that is an affront to banking is downplayed and smeared as crimes against anti-money-laundering legislation. In a word, their idealized future of peer-to-peer cash is an alternate form of Venmo—censorable, controllable, compliant.
Whether or not worldwide adoption of cryptocurrency is hypothetically possible or probable is not the point. What has to be understood is that at the time of this writing, global adoption is a Trojan horse for centralization and spying, and anyone advocating for it is ironically arguing for the expansion of the traditional financial system. How do we know this? Because the solutions the cryptocurrency talking heads propose are not used on darknet markets. As a darknet market maximalist, we use this simple barometer to remove the unnecessary technical discussion and the seemingly endless amount of cryptocurrency protocols that confuse and overwhelm the newcomer and, instead, highlight the fact that darknet markets represent the counterculture within cryptocurrency that still pushes against traditional finance. And wouldn’t you know it, the people who depend on battle-tested peer-to-peer cash are not using second-layer Bitcoin applications. In fact, they would accuse you of being a law enforcement operative for even suggesting it.
To be clear, adoption of peer-to-peer cash among the general public is extremely difficult, and attempts made at bridging the gap between the thirty-year-old Linux user and the 70-year-old grandmother are impressive. But with this level of user-friendly experience comes the unavoidable whitewashing of free and open-source software principles, and worse, a neglect towards the politically driven crypto-anarchism that gives peer-to-peer cash its vitality. The darknet market maximalist argues for realism and baby steps towards greater adoption instead of daydreaming of the future. This is boring, and gradual, but it is rational and grounded. Rather than being distracted by monthly increases or decreases in a cryptocurrency’s value, we must highlight the importance of expanding parallel economies for that cryptocurrency. Rather than panicking over the latest government regulation, we must double down on our beliefs and fight back both in the courts and through our peer-to-peer utilization. Rather than seeking to win people over with promises of sports cars, we must gather as many allies of privacy advocacy as possible so long as they share our perspective of the importance of free open-source software. The focus must be on laying a foundation that future generations can build on brick-by-brick, and while there may be some profit and an increase of public interest along the way, that must never get in the way of idealism.
Removing oneself from the idea of global adoption is the most important step to take for the moonboy in recovery. It shows a maturation in their world view, a growth of discipline, and an understanding of the chess game being played between the state and our freedom. If you are still stuck in the mindset of cryptocurrency taking over the world, you haven’t figured it out yet, because traditional finance, one of the most effective tools of the state, has absorbed cryptocurrency within its demonic system. The state will not lose this battle in the short term, so adjust your time frames and do not get complacent, because what we have witnessed over only the past decade is the dismantling of what was once the mighty and terrifying Bitcoin. As darknet market maximalists, we cherish utility, because utility is what guarantees adoption, and any type of adoption now is better than hypothetical adoption in the future. And this is why we study darknet markets, because they represent the oldest and largest peer-to-peer economy dependent on cryptocurrency that is currently active and vibrant.
5. Making Cryptocurrency Scary Again#
The newcomers will find this hard to believe, but cryptocurrency was once a very scary topic. Bitcoin in particular had a direct association with criminal activity, and for many of us this is how we first came in contact with cryptocurrency, whether from in-person hearsay of The Silk Road or from pearl-clutching opinion pieces in newspapers about a mysterious new internet money used by drug dealers. In the early days there were no regulations, and so conversation usually turned to how Bitcoin would be banned, and how the underground drug economy that used it would lead to mass arrests, and eventually confiscation of cryptocurrency from law-abiding citizens. Bitcoin, especially in its early days, was a playground for cypherpunks dedicated to the advancement of peer-to-peer cash. Their tolerance of HODL culture was largely in part due to the great financial uncertainty surrounding the project. Once the number did go up, higher than anyone could have imagined, the idealism was replaced, and those cypherpunks were either subjected to docility or excommunicated from the project they helped build. What remains is a collection of Core members sympathetic to the erroneous global adoption myth and even encouraging of it. The enlightened cypherpunks, who have now become hardened into darknet market maximalists, are embarrassed and angered that this monster has been created. Greed has won, and crooks like Saylor have risen to the top.
Bitcoin has now reached mainstream appeal without any semblance of its origins. Many celebrities, business executives, and politicians champion Bitcoin today, which, ten years ago, would have been career suicide. But what has Bitcoin gained from this mainstream acceptance? The moonboy will point to the price chart, the ETFs, and the co-signs from the aforementioned celebrities. But the cypherpunks know this is all smoke and mirrors. What actually happened was the dramatic expansion of Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering legislation, the development of blockchain surveillance technology, the influx of legal battles meant to take away our rights, and the relentless lobbying that is occurring on Capitol Hill right now. Over time, the state realized that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are relatively harmless without base-layer privacy, and instead of fighting it directly, boiling the frog by snipping away at the fringe advocacy groups would suffice in getting what they want. And their game plan has worked. Bitcoin’s conversion from peer-to-peer cash to a digital tech stock has been fully realized and the cypherpunk values that got us here in the first place have been whitewashed.
But there is an irony to Bitcoin’s transition into a sterile and corporate-friendly digital asset, that being that Bitcoin has lost all of its aura in the process. Consider the rebellious and terrifying status that Bitcoin had in the early days of The Silk Road and contrast this with Michael Saylor’s headshot on the cover of Forbes magazine. All of the bite, all of the power, all of what made cryptocurrency unique as a threat to the traditional finance system is gone, relegated instead to a limp caricature of what it once was. The identity crisis that Bitcoin finds itself in is an afterthought to the moonboy, who considers this development as natural progression, analogous to how the internet, once a wacky wild west of decentralized websites, is now streamlined in several politically correct social media applications. They view Bitcoin’s change as positive, with the idea that a state-approved path of least resistance serves the greater good for humanity. Or, at least this is what they’ve convinced themselves, as any darknet market maximalist who looks at the bigger picture is quick to point out the downsides of handwaving away the fight against the state, which has unquestionably led to the growth of the usecase of the store of value as opposed to the continuation of a medium of exchange.
The good news is the free market is relentless, and it will find a way. The darknet markets, and by extension, the usage of peer-to-peer cash in defiance of regulations, will always exist. And so, in the absence of Bitcoin’s improvements, darknet markets have looked elsewhere. The well-documented rise in popularity of Monero on darknet markets fills the need for digital cash where Bitcoin is no longer good enough, and likewise, it is now Monero that is targeted through regulations, fear, and uncertainty. Of course, the moonboy points to Monero’s poor relative price performance as the outcome of this, but the darknet market maximalist sees these delistings as a proof of concept and an endorsement from chain analysis companies of a superior medium of exchange. If regulation friendly Bitcoin was seen as threatening, powerful, and ultimately a threat to the state, it would also be removed from exchanges. So why isn’t that happening? Why is Monero scaring exchanges and not Bitcoin? What makes it all the more powerful? And slowly, the aura and clout around Monero grow, with the fear and uncertainty that surround it acting as a subtle advertisement that demonstrates just how powerful peer-to-peer cash is from the perspective of the powers that be.
There is something about the culture of cryptocurrency today that exudes anything but authenticity. The culture, if you can call it that, is a medley of third-world scams, memes, and degenerate wagering. None of it is serious. Many people share this opinion, and moonboys enjoy this insult with shades of irony, viewing it as a badge of honor and relishing in the clown world instead of challenging it. But there is one thing in cryptocurrency that is taken serious because of how formidable it is, and that is the use of peer-to-peer cash on darknet markets. Like the respect that Tony Soprano would receive when entering a restaurant, the moonboys and even the crypto-averse nocoiners who mock anything tangentially related to cryptocurrency bow their heads in recognition. Innately, everyone acknowledges the power that digital cash can hold over nation-states, and this is demonstrated by the implied power that is presented by an uncontrollable open source project being used by criminal enterprises around the world. But this fact is often downplayed, obscured, and frowned upon. The mainstream opinion within cryptocurrency argues that cryptocurrency is much more than its early darknet adoption, so it should be ignored, but the wiser man views this fact as a bellweather, utilization that signals something that repels the state. Try as they might to remove the stigma carried by darknet adoption, it follows cryptocurrency as a reminder of what is at stake, and this fact is not lost on the darknet market maximalist.
6. The Tactical Nuke to Short-Circuit the Bitcoin Moonboy#
Despite the considerable clout attained from darknet usage, the moonboy will jump at the opportunity to downplay any association with criminal activity. They will remark that the underground drug economy is comparatively minuscule, that the Bitcoin market cap dwarfs such a thing, and that it is better to not have the tarnished reputation in the eyes of the law-abiding populace. But worse, when confronted with Bitcoin’s diminishing adoption on these darknet markets, they will often refer to a reputable project like Monero as a “shitcoin,” branding this digital cash alternative that has taken Bitcoin’s darknet market share as nothing more than a distraction from generational wealth. So I would now like to offer you my patented way of embarrassing this Bitcoin moonboy who has lost sight of the bigger picture. It is a little trick that I’ve picked up that, to date, has worked 100% of the time. All you need to do is say the following:
“If Monero is a shitcoin, how is it that Monero has overtaken Bitcoin as the most used cryptocurrency on darknet markets? Because despite Bitcoin’s massive advantage in network effect and liquidity, Monero has become the most used cryptocurrency on the oldest and largest peer-to-peer economy dependent on peer-to-peer cash.”
The reason this statement is so effective is because the people on darknet markets do not use peer-to-peer cryptocurrency because they want to. Rather, the people on darknet markets are using peer-to-peer cryptocurrency because they need to. They have no other choice. If you were to magically wish away cryptocurrency, these peer-to-peer markets would largely no longer exist because they would have no other simple way of transferring value. In addition, the users of these darknet markets do not have the tribalistic fixation of “number-go-up” that plagues cryptocurrency. They are not waking up, jumping out of bed, opening their windows, and screaming their love for digital cash for all the world to hear. They are not bragging to their friends about how much cryptocurrency they own. No, they are buying digital cash like it is gasoline for their automobile. It is a necessity. And in this illicit environment, which, mind you, is incredibly dangerous, requiring the most battle-tested and powerful utility of value transfer, they have elected to use little Monero over the oh-so-mighty Bitcoin.
The problem for the moonboy is that this question is framed on utility instead of price. The moonboy, who only ever thinks in price, is now forced to imagine a scenario that is based on dependency. In response to the above statement, the moonboy is trained to show a chart of the price of Monero, and how it has, relative to Bitcoin, underperformed. But what the moonboy does not realize is that this makes it all the more impressive, because despite Monero’s lack of price appreciation, Monero has surpassed the highly liquid Bitcoin in a market where people’s lives depend on uncensorable digital cash. Why aren’t they using Bitcoin instead? How did Monero overcome this substantial network effect? Don’t they know that Monero is “far less secure” than Bitcoin? Why are they using a shitcoin instead of the Lightning Network? The moonboy’s head begins to spin. This “tactical nuke”, and the many variations like it, eradicate the moonboy’s criticism that is made against Monero. This is not based on speculation; this is a non-biased view of the free market, and it is happening right now.
What the Bitcoin moonboy won’t admit is that this is, in a way, emasculating. Accustomed to convincing others that there is no second best, they must now confront the preference of Monero by hardened criminals. This is made worse because they lack the technical knowledge to debate the cypherpunk, and because they are often too scared to do the research for themselves and read a hidden service like Dread to confirm this reality. This unwinnable situation causes them to flee back to their echo chamber or accept that perhaps there are other projects worth learning. And it isn’t just Bitcoin, other projects that criticize Monero’s privacy must overcome the fact that it was Monero that was chosen as opposed to their project. This insurmountable fact is caused by many factors, which we will examine in more detail later on, and lends credence to our adage that the cryptocurrency of choice on darknet markets is what is ultimately worth studying.
It should be noted that our study of internet black markets is focused primarily on drug markets, which can be found by those curious enough to go searching on Tor. The actual darknet economy is difficult to define and accounts for far more than drug markets, such as scams, ransomware, and weapons, among other illicit goods and services. For example, arguments can be made that stablecoins, a perversion of cryptocurrency that digitally pegs an asset to fiat, are used in greater volumes than either Monero or Bitcoin, in large part due to their lack of volatility and strong liquidity. Others may point out that there is a significant amount of illegal trade on social media platforms like Instagram or through chat protocols such as Telegram. Of course, fiat in general dwarfs cryptocurrency usage, so it’s no surprise to read articles of stablecoin adoption by Mexican cartels and Chinese crime syndicates or of well-documented third-world adoption for crypto advocates that want to preserve their value with the dollar. However, reputable estimates are unheard of, especially ones with accuracy, so it is sounder to focus on “traditional” markets with heightened opsec that are used by the common man, these being markets found on hidden service aggregates such as Tor Taxi, as they are more relevant as to how peer-to-peer cash developed into what it is today. Besides, future stablecoin legislation and clampdowns on social media sites will effectively push criminals to hardened types of cryptocurrency, and likely the one with a proven reputation on these drug darknet markets.
To be clear, this manifesto is not a sales pitch for Monero. The darknet market maximalist does not have any allegiance to a cryptocurrency project, for they do not approach cryptocurrency as a means of financial gain. The darknet market maximalist endorses Monero but also points out that Bitcoin’s liquidity and transparent nature are important tradeoffs and that, despite Bitcoin’s neutering over the past decade, it still is used on darknet markets, still prevalent in ransomware demands, and is still a liquid on-ramp with an ongoing small but passionate cypherpunk culture well worth fraternizing with. In fact, the darknet market maximalist would be quick to point out the irony of a growing Monero maximalist rhetoric, which, inverse to the Bitcoin moonboy of today, hypes up the possible “face melting gains” that could be had from a project that follows the cypherpunk origins of Bitcoin as the cryptocurrency of choice on the darknet. The Monero maximalist in many ways uses the same fraudulent tactics as the Bitcoin maximalist to achieve their dream of financial prosperity by looking at the illicit markets as a bellwether and embracing the stigma as a propaganda tool. Indeed, the power of free market adoption, especially when juxtaposed by the characteristic of utility as opposed to number-go-up speculation, is a powerful concept that provides proof of value even to the most unknowledgable of individuals—in fact, his manifesto is based on that. But romanticizing the stigma attached to darknet markets with the goal of becoming rich is no better than the degenerate maximalist who worships Michael Saylor. It is based on the fiat value going up and, left untethered, will lead us right back to the situation we find ourselves in today with Bitcoin.
7. Joe the Mechanic#
It’s an undeniable truth that darknet market usage is a simple way of proving that a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency works. Even the “normies” who don’t have a horse in this race raise their eyebrows at the thought of law enforcement having little remedy to prevent the transfer of digital cash. However, there is an interesting dynamic that we must highlight: that being how darknet market users don’t particularly care about the price of cryptocurrency or even the underlying technology. Outside of some minor annoyances in short-term price volatility, for the darknet market user, their interest in something like Monero or Bitcoin is strictly based on satisfying a step on the checklist to acquire something. They have little understanding of the tradeoffs that different projects have and have no exposure to the meta or debates in places such as crypto Twitter. It may seem silly to spend time thinking about this demographic of agnostics, but any researcher of darknet markets would point out that they actually represent the greater portion of the cryptocurrency economy that is reliant on peer-to-peer cash usage and not speculation.
If we close our eyes and imagine a news article about the dark web, we can see the picture they choose to illustrate the story: it is an image of a man in a sweatshirt with a hood over his face, perhaps wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, typing away at the command line interface of a laptop. For many people, hidden services are a completely foreign concept that only experienced computer users can reach, but the truth is that most darknet users are regular people who have absolutely no idea what they are doing, often with computer experience amounting to posting on Reddit and knowing how to access the Windows task manager. To illustrate this point, let’s imagine a scenario with a regular guy named Joe. He is a mechanic who likes to play video games. Joe works long shifts and to cope with his existence, like many other twenty or thirty-somethings, he decides to partake in some illegal substances. He is apprehensive about finding a drug dealer but after hearing from a friend that this is possible with the internet, he decides to try it out. How would he go about doing this?
Joe the mechanic is not going to spend dozens of hours reading white papers about different types of cryptocurrency, nor is he going to immerse himself in the debates between different projects. Joe has absolutely no idea how any of this works, and he becomes increasingly annoyed with the information overload that is happening to him when he begins his research. He just wants something that is proven to work, and so when he visits the darknet sites, he subsequently learns that Monero and Bitcoin are cryptocurrencies that are adopted, and this is all the information that he desires. He follows the herd. From there, he will find a guide on the internet on how to acquire cryptocurrency, and he likewise follows that advice step by step. Because Joe is looking for the path of least resistance, he will happily use a centralized exchange, utilize a wallet with a coinswap exchange built into it, and not consider the lurking attack vectors that can be exploited by chain analysis companies. At no point does Joe ever really question anything or read any more information than he needs to get from point A to point B. The little secret about the darknet is that many of its users are like Joe, at least at first. They begin their journey as uninformed laymen and follow directions from other Joes who have gotten further than them.
This is not to say that Joe the Mechanic’s actions are ill-informed—they aren’t! I would argue that Joe is being extremely rational in recognizing that he is out of his element, so logically he would elect the tools chosen by the free market, such as Monero, Tor, and PGP. He likewise then relies on helpful guides published by other individuals who have figured out the process, and as time passes, a refined approach in getting from point A to point B is established. Now you may be wondering, if Joe the mechanic is following the path of least resistance, won’t he just use Bitcoin considering the increased difficulty that he may have in acquiring Monero? And yes, it is true that there are markets that still accept Bitcoin, and so Joe can very well reach the conclusion that he might as well just use Bitcoin. However, the longer that Monero is successfully adopted, the more that the behavior of not using Monero is frowned upon, and we inevitably reach a point where even Joe is wondering why people are using Bitcoin instead of Monero. This is already seen today with the largest drug darknet market, Archetyp Market, being a Monero only peer-to-peer platform, and we can be assured that many Joe the mechanics are actively using it.
The chicken and egg problem facing peer-to-peer cryptocurrency is that to have darknet adoption, you need darknet adoption. This paradox is overcome by a passionate and dedicated grassroots movement that has built trust and reputation over time. It takes exhaustive promotion from individuals who aren’t afraid to go to the areas that aren’t politically correct or regulatory friendly, which are exactly the areas that have a use for peer-to-peer cash. And as the darknet market maximalist points out, the usage of peer-to-peer cash in these squalid areas of the internet is reflective of the greater purpose of peer-to-peer cash, which can then be applied in many positive ways for the common man against the state. Amusingly enough, Joe’s utilization of Monero is a monthly inconvenience, and if he were to have his way, he would use PayPal or even his credit card instead when purchasing drugs on the internet. And so the ultimate irony here is realized: that the most important drivers of peer-to-peer cash usage are often technical noobs who barely understand why they are using cryptocurrency in the first place. Ultimately, this exemplifies the importance of built-in privacy and how spending time considering the actions of the lowly drug user during a cryptocurrency’s development will benefit the greater good of the project. The utilization from Joe the Mechanic is fuel that propels peer-to-peer cash forward, and this is acknowledged by the darknet market maximalist, who doesn’t berate the individual for missing out on generational wealth, but observes this usage as a signal of how the state can be overcome by people like Joe, whether they know it or not.
8. An Ode to Ross Ulbricht#
The darknet economy is an encrypted free market of men from all types of economic and social backgrounds. There are mechanics and finance bros, professors and salesmen, meatheads and junkies. They are people who we unknowingly see every day in person, but their online identities are anonymous, shielding behavior that is in defiance of the law, behavior that is condemned as immoral. Indeed, some are evil, but many are normal, functioning members of society who would help us in times of need. But even though this underground market may be hidden in the shadows, indecipherable to anyone attempting to peer inside, there still is some light that may inexplicably break through and shine towards the future.
And so a picture was taken the other day of a man in gray sweats with a bag over his shoulder, a potted plant, and a heartwarming smile. How sweet it was. The shared elation of the entire cypherpunk community doesn’t happen often, but I can assure you that this image, seemingly taken on a whim, sent a jubilant feeling around the world, just like how encrypted communications navigate our peer-to-peer networks. For the less informed, Ross Ulbricht may seem like a degenerate who has caused the creation of the economy we call the darknet today. But for the real ones, Dread Pirate Roberts was a visionary who saw how digital cash could change the world.
In the lore of cryptocurrency, the Silk Road is the mythic birthplace of Bitcoin. As the story goes, in some obscure corner of the internet, a nerdy hobbyist project was morphed into an unimaginable threat. Rumors spread of a website like Ebay where drugs are sold. A friend of a friend claimed he purchased cocaine there, and he swore by it. It sounded too good to be true. But as time passed, the general public consciousness slowly became aware of what seemed to be an impossible concept. And before you knew it, Bitcoin had entered the mainstream as a revolutionary counterweight to traditional finance. It was terrifying to the fence-sitters who can’t form opinions for themselves. It was terrifying to governments who do everything in their power to squash you like a bug. It was terrifying to the banking syndicate that has held us hostage for generations. It was absolutely incredible.
Here, though, we must pause to separate Dread Pirate Roberts, the metaphorical figure of counterprotest, and Ross, the human being. The heartbreaking detail that is misunderstood by many is that, by his own admission, Ross has great regret for the creation of the Silk Road. In his only public interview, at the 2021 Bitcoin conference, through his carefully chosen words you could imagine the tears welling in his eyes. It’s a brutally sincere confession, and, facing a life sentence, you can tell that he was in complete despair, filled with remorse, yearning for freedom. He referred to his 26 year old self as impulsive, which is contrary to the spirited anti-government symbol that many portray him as. Hearing that bright libertarian soul, someone quite like myself, so broken down by the confinement of federal prison made me realize that Ross wasn’t simply an idealist with dreams of overthrowing traditional finance but also a young, naive programmer who happened to be the first one to light the match.
If Ross had not made The Silk Road, it would have been inevitable that another individual would have made the same discovery. In retrospect, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that uncensorable money can be used for illicit transactions, and criminals tend to become innovative when new technology is introduced to the general public. In addition, illicit internet markets had long existed before The Silk Road. Of course, they became much larger after the implementation of digital cash, but it only further proves that this booming dark net economy was going to happen regardless. And while critics point to The Silk Road as an ugly stain in Bitcoin’s history, it must be said that the things that have made Bitcoin worse go well beyond dark net markets. The true freedom of peer-to-peer cash was compromised by greed and a syndicate of vultures looking to become richer; in contrast, The Silk Road taught us that united peer-to-peer networks can be unstoppable even in a surveillance dystopia.
Peer-to-peer cash will never go away. It will always exist now. We have found it, we have discovered it, and we are now harvesting it. For decades to come, we will continue to innovate, and we will continue to adapt, and we will continue to protest, and please know that almost all of it will be for the good of humanity. So speaking to you Ross, understand that while you may feel remorse for what you have done, your contribution is something to not be ashamed of, and we’re happy you’re finally home.
9. A Brief History of Cryptocurrency Usage on Darknet Markets#
Soon there were dozens of copycat onion websites looking to achieve the infamy that had been reached by Dread Pirate Roberts. Bitcoin adoption was thriving, law enforcement adapted, and thus the cat-and-mouse game of cryptocurrency saw its origins. The battlefield was the public ledger, and federal investigators began to successfully attack it with probabilistic analytical tools, which were able to tie identities to doxxed wallet addresses on centralized exchanges. Individuals began to get arrested, and in response the cypherpunk community saw a demand for the development of mixers and coinjoin protocols to remove deterministic links. Some projects were successful, but most failed. The formidable liquidity and network effect of Bitcoin stubbornly held its strong adoption rates, yet over time it began to be broken down further by a concentrated push of regulatory actions that expanded Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering legislation. From the perspective of Joe the mechanic, the process of acquiring Bitcoin from non-centralized exchanges became a chore, and the techniques for using Bitcoin became more convoluted.
Historically, there had been several markets to incorporate alternate cryptocurrencies, though their usage was minimal compared to the dominating adoption of Bitcoin. But as arrests began to pile up, market administrators and vendors began to change their tune, and in 2019, with the creation of White House Market, Monero officially entered the darknet economy as a powerhouse. Contrary to other marketplaces, White House Market enforced mandatory PGP and heavily promoted Monero. Bitcoin, still accepted on White House Market in its early stages, was eventually phased out entirely. At first, darknet users did not like how difficult White House was to use, but the emphasis on stronger opsec grew a cult following, which eventually grew into the largest darknet market in the world.
The snowball effect was gradual but organic. Darknet vendors, the individuals selling illicit goods, often use multiple marketplaces to increase the amount of clientele they have, so naturally, they were using Monero if they were using White House Market. This caused them to endorse adding Monero to other marketplaces, and one by one, other marketplaces began to do exactly that. Soon, other Monero-only marketplaces were launched, such as Alphabay 2 and Archetyp Market. The transitory period from Bitcoin dominance to Monero dominance has taken place over the past 5 years, starting in late 2019. Today, most marketplaces are Monero-only, and, likely within the next few years, Bitcoin usage on these markets will be completely vanquished. Monero is now the king of darknet markets, and by extension, the king of peer-to-peer cash.
Monero covers all the bases that a successor of Bitcoin should exemplify. Its culture is grassroots, open-source, and community-driven. Like Bitcoin, there is no dev tax or premine, which minimizes the risk of the project going astray due to regulations or developers being targeted. The mining protocol is first in its class, adopting Random X to dissuade the ASIC mining monopoly that has plagued Bitcoin, instead putting the mining power back to the user with a mining algorithm that is optimized for CPUs. The extensive miner network, as well as the more technically literate user base promotes Linux and FOSS. Its research team is renowned with several influential contributions to the ecosystem, and its developers have proven capable of dealing with timely patches to thwart bad actors. The blocks are dynamic in size and the fees are low. And, perhaps what is most enticing for someone that isn’t technically savvy, like Joe the mechanic, is s Monero’s built-in privacy, which will put even the dumbest user at a level equal if not ahead of, a well-studied Bitcoin user.
But above all else, what drives a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency is the unrelenting passion of cypherpunk anarchism that emanates from its core user base. The culture must be skeptical, distrustful of regulations, and vocally against the state. They must promote usage and not hoarding. They must draw a line in the sand for privacy rights that will not be encroached. The vigor that comes from standing for something you believe in helps push the project forward, whether it is the technical development or its grassroots promotion to individuals who are unfamiliar with the project. Ultimately, it is the philosophy of the project that will guarantee its long-term influence, and all too often this fact is lost on people. How often do I hear from the well-meaning cryptocurrency enthusiast who wishes to distance himself from moonboyism that he is in cryptocurrency “for the tech.” This mindset is a step in the right direction, but meaningless. A focus on the underlying cryptography, the programming, and the innovations in blockchains can be fulfilling for an academic, but it lacks zeal. But from the perspective of the darknet market maximalist, this is a sideshow that doesn’t actually amount to anything, and this is because ultimately the technology, while important, plays second fiddle to the soul, and for peer-to-peer cash, that soul is found in its crypto anarchism. Without that passion to fight the state, the project is ultimately worthless, even with venture capitalist backing and endorsements from celebrities. Peer-to-peer cash is an opportunity for the cypherpunk to change the financial world completely, and a project that isn’t fighting anything isn’t worth supporting, because it would mean that project is embedded in the traditional financial system that must be fought against.
10. The Clout-Building Stage and the Inevitability of Moonboyism#
Monero is currently in the clout-building stage, the period in time in which a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency is seeing thriving adoption on darknet markets, the type of utilization that makes even the most pathetic of laser-eyed maximalists take notice. The respect bestowed on Monero is not based on its price but on the legitimate use case that it continues to prove. Every day, people who don’t care about cryptocurrency are being onboarded to using Monero because they have no other choice. And as more people learn about this cutting-edge peer-to-peer cash, it gets used more in all clearnet markets, and like an unyielding current of water, the darknet adoption provides a constant demand that flows into everything else. Just look at any clearnet business that publishes transaction data, or ask any privacy advocate about their preferred cryptocurrencies. It is clear that Monero is the standard of peer-to-peer cash, the only cryptocurrency to encroach on Bitcoin’s dominating reign on the darknet.
The irony is not lost on me that, by writing about Monero’s prolific rise in illicit markets, I myself am contributing to the cult of Monero moonboyism. This is not my intention, but as a darknet market maximalist, it is clear which peer-to-peer cash is the heavyweight champion. The artwork that I have chosen for this project shows the iconic Silk Road camel reimagined with a sharp orange hue and the innocent personification Monero-chan, signifying the notable transition towards Monero over time. But it also represents the shifting tide of peer-to-peer cash, which has been beaten down by regulations, but has also adapted and improved. Monero strikes back with a counterhook, which has staggered the state, but this fight doesn’t end in only a few rounds. We must be vigilant and uncompromising, because moonboyism will corrupt Monero like it did with Bitcoin if we do not tread lightly.
So how must we fight back? We can examine how the community involved with Samourai Wallet reacted to give us an insight into how veterans from a generation before us were dealing with the repercussions of an open source project that has economic scarcity. What we saw isn’t exactly reassuring. The contrast between the traditionalists and the onslaught of fresh-faced noobs that they dealt with is the exact divide we have illustrated in this manifesto, and what is striking is how this difference in opinion was seemingly unstoppable. Bitcoin, which financially had benefited tremendously from its groundbreaking mainstream recognition, had lost almost all of its intensity, and so to compensate for that, the remaining cypherpunks in Bitcoin took to mocking anyone who got in their path, and it was successful. Samourai Wallet was in many ways a rallying point for the cypherpunks doing everything they could to fight back against Saylor and his deranged mob. For a time, it was an oasis in a desert of degenerate gambling. What the culture of Samourai Wallet brought was a clear distinction between the two schools of thought that cannot coexist: The pro-statist vs. the cypherpunk; greed vs. utility; the moonboy vs. the dark net market maximalist.
But the tragedy that faces peer-to-peer cash is that moonboyism is inevitable. Unlike FOSS projects like VLC, Debian, or PostgreSQL, cryptocurrency has scarcity, and with that scarcity comes potentially lucrative investments. And so with Monero, it is clear that its artificially limited supply, as well as its ever-growing clout, can entice moonboys to throw their support behind the project, looking for the “next Bitcoin,” which will yield mind-blowing gains. Bitcoin, to them, is what antiquated boomers buy and hold. Monero is edgy and scary. The cycle repeats, with the wave of fraudulent investors espousing their new-found beliefs that privacy is really important, as if they really care. Though indeed, their investment does have merit, because darknet market usage is the most powerful status that peer-to-peer cash can attain. A cryptocurrency that is being used on darknet markets is probably what we want in the future. It is a counterbalance to fiat, a virtual hedge, and digital Swiss bank—even I must concede that the moonboy has a good argument.
Yet the darknet market maximalist is not concerned for the price but rather for the philosophy. We are a hardened bunch, cypherpunks who have seen the life cycle of Bitcoin play out with its positive and negative developments, and therefore, we are wise to the pitfalls that lie ahead. Because just like how the smallest government inevitably becomes the largest, so too did Bitcoin become corrupted by the system it was meant to replace. But what cannot be replaced is our relentless idealism, that ardent crypto-anarchism which pushes back against a looming cyber dystopia. If our beliefs and protocols are attacked, they only become further hardened, encrypted beyond recognition, buried further in the weeds. Behind all the noise of cryptocurrency, the constant momentum created by darknet markets cannot be understated, for as long as life continues, these markets will exist, propelled by the invention of peer-to-peer cash. The spirit of crypto-anarchism lives on with it, is invigorated by it, and over time peer-to-peer cash will seep into all facets of traditional finance, just like encryption has managed to do with internet networks and computers. So as a darknet market maximalist, we invest not in cryptocurrency bags, but in pure idealism! And we do this not for generational wealth, but because our future generations will depend on us.