I need ideas from people who are actually a part of this situation. I used to tell my research methods students that there wasn't ANYthing they could name that I couldn't design a research project to study, but now I'm pretty much convinced I'm wrong. Here's a very, very short proposal: I want to find out 1: about the darknet vendors (and market users). How are they different, if at all, from street-level vendors? Did they mostly start from the street and move online, or not? Are they older or younger on average than those who score/deal in non-online contexts? How do they demographically differ? Are they more/less educated on average? Do online dealers have a larger variety? What's the average day like for an online darknet marketer? Is it similar to experiences of offline dealers? Are relationships with wholesalers similar? Is the level of danger (of assault or arrest) similar or different? Many more questions around that level of interest.
Things I already know are problematic, so please don't respond rudely regarding them: 1: how can I absolutely, positively ensure anonymity? 2: how can I word these questions/run this project so that, even if I WERE law enforcement, it couldn't really help the cops (this may be the most difficult aspect of this project -- I don't know how to do this.) I've seen this as a valid argument -- a good research project would potentially be a goldmine for LEOs. Maybe that's the fatal flaw... 3: How do I talk people into spending twenty minutes of their lives doing this survey? Paying them (in any form) could expose them or an account, and besides, I'm not grant-funded. I literally want to do this project without any government funding whatsoever.
I know someone will claim that fully outing myself might help -- showing the world that I'm simply a criminologist at a university, not someone with an agenda against the darknets. Unfortunately, I have a family, a wife with a university career, and children. Outing me outs them, and I don't have that right.
So...what do you think, folks? Am I out of luck? This is the most fascinating aspect of the world of substance use/abuse/sales that I've seen evolve in a generation. it would be SO amazing to study the people who are a part of that, but do so in a way that doesn't endanger them. If anyone out there has ideas, I would very much appreciate them. Thanks!
Your best hope would be to set up your own .onion to conduct the survey of the dark net vendors. Get help with this, you sound like you might need it.
All the questions would have to be totally optional, allowing the vendor to disclose as much as they are comfortable. (Age ranges might be more suitable than just an age.)
I recognize that this procedure is not going to be easy, or like anything you have ever done. You may not get the stats you need. But I have no doubt it will be interesting...
DO NOT ASK FOR THEIR LOCATION.
DO NOT HAVE YOUR SITE USE SCRIPTS (ONLY USE HTML5 OR HTML).
Verifying that they are a vendor is simple: You pick their public key off their profile, send them a unique password for them to sign in with to your survey. This way, you make sure you only get vendors.
You will get lots of suspicion.
And because it's so anon. Your results might be way off...
Good luck.