Op-Ed: PENISSMITH's STATE of the DARKNET

https://www.deepdotweb.com/2017/12/30/op-ed-penissmiths-state-darknet/#comment-651989

Hello everyone. My name is Penissmith, and this is my second article for deepdotweb. I have been around darknet marketplaces for the last 5 years. It's common knowledge now that I helped AlphaBay not only by serving as a ScamWatch member, but also helped as a moderator going by the name of Botah. Even though I may come across as a troll, those who knew me or followed me knew that I'm very sentimental about the darknet and am very grateful for the fraud community. I started out like anyone else, and I wouldn't be where I am today without the treasure trove of information that I was able to accumulate over the years.

A lot of people in the community like to overthink things and make up assumptions about my hiatus. I've heard some theories that I have taken up a new identity, that I've been arrested, andeven some wilder ones from Reddit junkies. I see everything on Reddit, and by the way, it was a great source of entertainment during AlphaBay's demise watching the subreddits melt down. I've always been strictly about fraud, and most of Reddit's darknet discussion is about drugs. LE are even using posts on Reddit to catch drug vendors.

I've probably made five posts in my lifetime in drug forums, and those were mostly for trolling. Because of this, I have no sentimental attachment to the drug community on Reddit. In fact, some could argue that it was their fault we've had LE eyes on us in recent events. It's obvious that the fraud community isn't the main source of bringing attention to the marketplaces.

With that being said, the darknet is dying. The fraud community is already dead. In my opinion, you can't have successful marketplaces without a community built around them. If you knew me at any point over the years, you would know I actually loved Evolution and Alphabay. Not only was there excellent uptime and friendly website design, but there was a massive community built around them. This is very important to any darknet marketplace success. When I look on the darknet today, I don't see any community. Most sites have suffered massive ddos attacks with no redundancy to keep them alive. The closest thing we have to a community is abunch of junkies on Reddit talking about how their drugs haven't been shipped yet, and going into meltdown mode when the inevitable exit-scam or shutdown comes along.

I personally believe that the darknet is beyond saving. There is a fix for everything; however, it seems to be beyond repair at this point. The only way to fix this would be to bring the community back to the darknet first, and then build a marketplace around that community. This is easier said than done. The wisest minds in the fraud world have gone into hiatus and are now flying solo, like myself. They never needed any of you, just remember that. They were only a part of these communities to have fun and help the noobs out. People have moved off the darknet and to the clearnet. For example, people are doing direct deals on wickr now, and multiple other chat apps. There are even Telegram groups dedicated completely to fraud, filled with noobs without any type of direction. This is working backwards, and it seems as if we're moving back to the clearnet. This is obviously stupid in a number of ways, but it's the way people are moving. If this continues, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that there is no further need for the darknet.

Also, let's take a look at the marketplace selection. Right now, the top marketplace is Dream.

The fraud community is a sad bunch over there, and I don't think even I could save it. With a user interface, community, and uptime that Dream has, all it makes me want to do is stay as faraway as possible. In fact, it even motivates me to start an AlphaBay clone called PenisBay.

You guys know that I have connections, and I always get my footing in every marketplace. This is for my own, personal benefit. I can honestly say that I've become a professional at acquiring darknet contacts. Because of this, I can tell you right now that more 70% of the marketplaces today are either shutting themselves down to prevent arrest, plotting an exit scam, have massive security leaks, or are already operated by feds. In those 30% that are not apart of this group, most of them are run by people who aren't very technologically savvy and have an imminent death on the way. If you trust any of the darknet marketplaces in this current state, it's obvious that you are well beyond the reasoning stage, and you are simply careless.

That's okay, but just know that I warned you. Just remember, there is a reason I've been the longest living member of the darknet. I play my cards right.

The second factor that has led to the destruction of darknets is Bitcoin itself. Bitcoin has acquired an enormous amount of mainstream adoption over these last few months alone. Bitcoin has become an impractical currency for darknet marketplaces, and it will eventually become unusable. The fees alone make any transaction under 200$ not even worth it. This is just the usability of it. Bitcoin's explosion in the mainstream has also brought a lot of eyes on the darknet. You guys still think you're apart of the underground, but that's just wrong. As more people learn about Bitcoin, they will also learn about its history. There's no illusion that Bitcoin's history is a dark one. This means all eyes will be coming this way, and eyes that we don't want around here. Those who knew me knew that I was an avid supporter of Monero. I'm also a supporter of other privacy-centered cryptocurrencies. Not only have I made an enormous amount of money from simply holding Monero, but I've also been pushing for its acceptance on the darknet. It boggles my mind that our marketplaces are still using Bitcoin as their mainpayment backbone. This is ridiculous, and this alone will kill the marketplaces.

I didn't write this article to spread FUD. I wouldn't have wasted my time or mind space writing this if I didn't care. Honestly, I'm probably intelligent enough to come up with a fix for this current state of the darknet marketplaces. However, I'm exhausted and I've grown into a stage in my career where I've realized I don't need the community anymore. My heart is only with the fraud community. If I see a path to recovery for this community, I will resurface again, and you all know that. However, I can honestly say that I don't see this happening, and I hope that the skilled fraud people decide to fly solo and realize that they don't need this mess in their life either.

It's important to realize that this idea of the "darknet" is dying. The communities took a massive blow in the events of the AlphaBay/Hansa takedowns, and are on their last thread. It only takes one more catastrophe to be the end of the darknet marketplaces in my opinion. The main point to take from this is that you never needed the darknet for the marketplaces. You needed the darknet for the community. You needed a group of likeminded people and a medium to voice your opinions and have conversations behind a mask. The marketplaces were simply a product of this idea. The darknet and Tor have provided that. All the tools were there, and you guys blew it. Nobody was intelligent enough to come up with a solution that maintained this idea. If the community dies, the marketplaces die with it. There is a lot of evidence that the community is dying, if it hasn't already. Hopefully those who have learned from me over the years have accumulated enough knowledge and a skill set to where they are able to operate solo. You guys either need to get smarter, or you will face the blow that is soon to come. That's all there is to it. The darknet is beyond repair, and it would take a miracle to get it rolling again.


Comments


[18 Points] iamfrankfrank:

tl;dr in case you don't want to read the whole thing:


[10 Points] wombat2combat:

those who knew me or followed me knew that I’m very sentimental about the darknet and am very grateful for the fraud community.

proceeds to talk down to us 'junkies' and brags about how he was above the ab demise which ruined the live of hundreds / thousands of buyers and vendors and laughed about it.

I’ve probably made five posts in my lifetime in drug forums, and those were mostly for trolling

lol he made far more than that on the tr forums alone desperately trying to push the w2c-is-law-enforcement-or-worked-for-ab f.u.d. he spewed even more bullshit on ab forums.

what even is his point? he is being hunted by several nations around the globe. the united states attorney general, head of the dea, head of europol and many others stood in front of dozens of cameras and told the world how they dismantled the very organization he worked for. and that it literally killed underage americans by distributing fent to them. us law enforcement will not give a fuck about a fair trial as soon as they get hands on him.

they will hunt every remaining member of the ab organization around the globe. and this guy is not doing the only logical step [abandoning his previous identities and laying low] but instead boasting about the felonies he committed and desperately trying to stay relevant.

if he is not already taken over at the time when I am writing this he will probably when I submit this comment.


[6 Points] FreshestNuts:

Another ploy to stay relevant in a community who doesn't give a flying shit about you / even know who you are nowadays botah.


[3 Points] Wolff_Laarcen:

Well, this guy sure sounds like a smug, condescending cunt.


[3 Points] itsalaughinggas:

For me, having been around since reading about silk road bust in USA today newspaper, the marketplaces have helped me to tame my obsession with drugs. I can say that I have experimented/used/abused every kind of illicit drug that humans commonly take and even some rare ones. got hopelessly addicted to opioids, got clean, got more, got clean again...

I have found that drugs are a zero-sum game, with the exception of possibly psychedelics. For the past several months, I have become disinterested in drugs, choosing to spend the time I have normally spent learning about drugs focusing my attention on subjects that offer a tangible benefit to my short time on this planet.

DNM's probably saved me years of searching and craving obscure classes of drugs, because I was able to source and consume them with such ease.


[3 Points] _PrinterPam_:

Perhaps he means that the fraud part of DNMs will die-out. Good riddance...to it and to him.


[5 Points] None:

My boi penis smith. That name conjures us some artisan blacksmith, with his anvil, handcrafting the best penis mankind has ever seen. He pays attention to the smallest of details.

"Is the dick vein too big? Too small?"
"Are the balls to dick proportion okay? Or does it look like he went for a swim in an icy lake?"
"Shall my crafted penis be limp, erect as all hell, or should it portray a "semi" - that in between phase that all guys try to emulate in the locker room. Because, yeah, having a full blown erection in the locker room gives the bois the wrong idea. Having a limp dick shows the pitiful size. So yeah, just that right amount of fantasy to get that semi-erection that doesn't look like an erection b/c yeah, "That's my natural, limp size bois, its quite large."

He respects artists of long ago in their quest to sculpt the perfect penis. It was the Romans or Greeks who considered large penises to be comical and a joke and opted and valued the smaller, sleeker penis. But today's porn and society values the large penis and ridicules the small. Which will this artisan craft? Is bigger really better? Is smaller sophisticated? Fuck it, let's do a fucking 12 inch cock and let that shit swing. Leave the micropenises to the Greeks and bigmuscles.

He bangs and bangs it out, serious in his craft. His lifelong goal to blacksmith the most beautiful penis ever seen. Its a little known fact that this blacksmithed penis is the mystery item in Tarantino's briefcase in the movie Pulp Fiction. It was cast in gold of course because its PenisSmith.


[3 Points] None:

In honor of big muscles, I will need your private pgp key to verify your identity. Remember, your PRIVATE key!


[1 Points] ForLol_Serious:

Omg penissmith I have been searching for you for a while now! I have been told that you have answers about who virused my tor update.


[1 Points] None:

[deleted]


[1 Points] BilliCrystaal:

But I thought Penis-Smith was POST-OP


[1 Points] Intergalactic_Reborn:

Who's mans is this? Fucking joke.


[1 Points] BlackGoatSemen:

Holy shit.

I actually just read all of that..


[1 Points] RSlashMason:

Fuck you, where’s my ounce of Envy?


[1 Points] DNMnews:

i spoke with botah today and he is willing to refund some of your orders that were in dispute at the time of the server seizures. so message him on jabber... dicks (at) exploit (dot) im