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How many of the new Silk Road's will be as successful? The entire idea of this type of marketplace has been tainted and I doubt we'll ever see one of the same magnitude. The feds made a massive bust and simultaneously removed drug money, hurt dealers + buyers, and devauled the bitcoin.

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Well, what do you think happens after every big drug/ kingpin bust? Everybody gives up? Or people find a way to start again.

No, but sometimes it does take them a while to re-group and reach mass due to competing markets and segmentation.

Maybe a winning black market site skyrockets rapidly, or maybe this causes trepidation in users and vendors who try to approach things more carefully, test driving many sites instead of flocking en mass to one particular site.

I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that a Silk Road replacement in terms of size and volume will appear in the vacuum; eventually yes, but I'm sure it's probably bought them a few months or years of disruption.

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