Some Various Helpful Tips on DNM, Opsec, BTC, etc

Some tips/items I wanted to share. These to not apply to vendors or service operators.

Firstly, fodder/markets/drama/reddit This subreddit is an incredible wealth of about half bullshit and half good info. The mods are pretty kick ass but as you know, anyone can really post anything... anonymously. Never ever forget that.

Also never forget you're dealing with big time freaking criminals. I get it, you're a college kid, heard that you can buy your crack online, and just go through the motions. You are in the depths of the black market and you are dealing with people that will steal everything you own (or worse) if given the chance.

Lots of people you come across here are full time thieves and fraudsters and have no remorse and will steal what they want. They don't care that you didn't get your weed or that you can't trip this weekend. All they care about is coins.

Realize that a LOT of the "complaints" about one market is very likely someone from another market just blasting trash. It also goes the other way, a "good review" could be pure BS. you really need to find it our yourself. I personally use several of the "smaller" markets (hansa, dream, etc) without any issues and I actually like their setup much better than the big guys, however youll hear all sorts of trash talk (like on hansa for example) that is unwarranted and used to sway you from trying a market out.

When it comes to dnm.... I think for the most part, you need to kind of "get a feel for it" and you'll eventually kind of figure out the flow and demeanor. It's hard to explain but let's just say every time you get scammed or lose out, you learn something new and you'll never make that mistake again. On the same token all the times you have a great deal, you confirm what works, and what doesn't.

Oh, and one last thing to say in this section.... NEVER put all your eggs in one basket. diversify if at all possible.

Computer the computer really doesn't matter as long as it's a standard machine and you're booting TAILS. Use Tails. If you can't figure it out, you are way too noobish, will probably get phished in a week and lose a couple hundo. If you can't figure out how to boot to a usb how can you figure out not to get scammed by the worlds best scammers? Take a step back, learn, then come back latershouldn't be doing this stuff.

Internet Connection - Overall your home internet is fine as long as you're 100% on Tor during anything darnet related (this includes going to this subreddit or related ones) Best case is that you're using cracked/public wifi but since you're on Tor you're fine using your main ISP. You may want to change your DNS to something more private than your ISP, but that's just being picky. NEVER log into your darknet reddit account while on the clearnet... don't even log in. Better yet, don't mess with ANY of this stuff at all on clearnet.
There will then be a log on reddits servers that will state what account was accessed from what IP, normally this wouldn't matter unless LE is involved, but just be safe.

Data/backups -- This includes things like your PGP private keys, passwords, etc

Do not trust your Tails persistent volume, I've had it go missing multiple times without warning. I thought I was locked out of a market because my private key was on persistent volume. Each time I was able to recover files through the terminal, but just don't risk it, if it needs to be backed up, back it up. Especially if you know nothing about Linux.

Have backup files (pgp keys, wallet, and keepass db) on an encrypted drive as backup. This drive is easily destroyable, but gives the peace of mind that my coins won't be stuck on a market because I lost my PIN when my volume crapped out.

Your identity -- start a new identity every month or so. this means delete your whole environment, all your keys, wallet, logins, etc - Unless of course you need rep as a vendor/etc.

ALWAYS use a different username/password/pin on every different website... always. If someone hacks some website you used back in 2004, and it uses the same email or username or password that info can be used to gain access to an account you use now. You shouldn't use username/password that is even similar to any you've used elsewhere.

Just remember... unique for every site, every service, every time. Again, these only apply for buyers/etc, vendors obviously need to keep an identity.

IRL -- Never, under any circumstance, chat about what you do on dnm irl. The only exceptions is if you have someone hosting a drop for you so they know to expect a package/etc but never go into details. If anyone asks where you got what you have, the answer is "some guy I met in <some city> " if you even give an answer at all.

Buying Coins If you can, have someone trusted buy coins for you through a legit service (lower fees) and just have them send you the coins. One of the major services out there can do a couple hundred INSTANT and then xfer to you in minutes if they link their debit. You can do this of course too just be sure to bounce the coins through some wallets before using them. Safest bet is to not have coins linked to your debit card though haha. This way you pay cash for coins without the crazy high prices of Localbitcoins.


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