Darknet markets never stopped being a thing, they just got shut down and replaced with different ones every so often

I've never used any crypto black markets, but this sort of shit fascinates me. My understanding is that silk road was effectively the "Pirate Bay" of crypto black markets. It was the most easily accessible, "good enough", and popular enough that it made headlines.

It was never the only one, or the true "source" or originator for much of the scene. These places absolutely still exist, but they're slightly less "open". Comparing to piracy again, it's like getting into a private tracker rather than using one of the known public ones. You have to dig just a little for it.

Don't know how much is agency honeypots or astroturfing, but last time I browsed the dark web one of the most popular "subreddits" on what is supposedly TOR's biggest reddit equivalent was all discussion of current marketplaces and their specialties, annoyances, and trustworthiness.