An open letter to governments and law enforcement:
After Archetyp became the #1 market since ASAP announced its retirement, I think not only will this market be in the focus of the government and consequentially law enforcement with an immense and disproportional amount of resources more than ever, but I also think the attention can be used for something more impactful than Archetyp being taken down one day. I know you deep down already know while you hate to admit, but such a takedown will not change anything. At all. Let me elaborate and give some food for thought.
We have not created this issue. We have not created the market around Archetyp.
The drug market has evolved and exploded over the past decades. We are not the reason humans crave drugs more than ever. Again, we have not created this market. This is something only corporations worlds bigger and more powerful than our small project here do. Truly bad humans. They create issues and provide the 'solution'. We did not create any issue. It was there before and will remain when we are gone. Deep problems in our system and society did. If you don't notice rising tension and people living lives they would prefer not to live the way they do left and right, there could be two reasons for this. You don't want to notice it, or you're blatantly lying. What we are actually doing, however, is fueling and pushing an inevitable radical change.
Everyone reading this can name someone who should cut down on Ibuprofen and a glass of wine or other socially accepted drugs. They are nothing other than that, drugs. In addition, usage of illegal drugs is probably more common than one might think, judging from a few customers whose information went past my eyes as a part of our work supporting their purchases. Behind both of this lies the same drive. They are looking to improve their current life and feeling. Why would they do that if everything is great?
Coming back to the introduction of this letter, we have not created this issue. In fact, I think we are as much resisting the pointless 'solution' by the government using tremendous resources to hunt dealers and operators of services like ours in order to push said government into a new, proper solution as we improve the problems of a business sector with such a strong economic structure and the illegal nature of it brings with it at the same time. Rival gangs literally taking out lives that mean nothing to them, robbery and attacks on in-person transactions and no way to have a visible reputation tied to a vendor that is closely being watched by an independent staff team to reduce harm caused by substances as good as possible. Believe it or not, the only gang clashes we have here are kindergarden discussions about reviews. We also don't want something stolen from someone, which is why we are mainly about drugs and don't allow credit cards or other fraudulent goods here. While this all sounds great, we surely can not ignore the fact that some person might have lost their life as a result of a trade on this platform, rather as a direct customer and user or by being a customer from a reseller of our platform's products in real life. I hope the number for this is close to zero, and I am truly sorry for every negative impact this site also has, but I am also confident that we saved more of them with this platform. They will buy the drugs with or without a digital way of doing it that puts a barrier between rival dealers and the customer and their dealer. Some even need to purchase products here as literal medicine because they just can not afford it going the legal way. While I'd love to see nobody taking any drugs at all, we try to make the inevitable as pleasant as possible. Just again, the underlying issue does not go away with us. Shouldn't it make you think that I ask you to address the core issue, which would make Archetyp and all future markets obsolete at some point or at the very least reduce the customer base quite a bit?
When I was a kid, I used to think that law enforcement and the police as the front line of it is protecting us from evil. The government wants the best for all of us. They protect you from the man in black coming into your house at night. I quickly realized it is not quite as simple. I absolutely believe there are heroes without capes amongst them (think cases like No Limits Fun and Peter Scully, I applaud and thank you for your work), but when you look at how resources are wasted hunting down markets just for the next one to pop up a few weeks later, you might think about it again. The agencies and agents involved will be looking forward to a great career after an operation like that, and they are the definition of just doing their job, but who was saved by this? Wasn't your initial motivation to make the world a better and safer place? Not even your experiment of putting Ross into prison for multiple lives has made an impact. To be fair, it did have an impact. You showed your tyranny and the world was watching. Over 500,000 people have signed his petition by now. You motivated some of us to continue his legacy. I don't think this is the impact you were looking for, though. You wanted to make an example out of him with this sentence that is so out of range that it is hard to grasp. You ended his life for the mistakes you make. While he started something back then, he also did not create the market nor the issue.
Not everyone in the history of markets had the same motivation. Looking at all the exit scams, I must admit that I fear most are in for the money. There is nothing wrong with doing it for money, and the money to be earned in this economic sector is quite inviting, for sure. They are just playing the game they were put into when they were born into this system. While I hate to say this, even the exit scammers did their part here. Every single market showed you over and over again: You will never stop this. Ever.
You may arrest me tomorrow, you may arrest me in a week. I'm not hiding in paranoia, and I'm not running. After this letter, you might rub your hands when you got me for having the audacity to address the real issue you should work on. I almost feel sorry to tell you the following about a potential bust of any market or staff member: You have accomplished nothing other than potentially collecting some money and making the average Doe feel better in front of his television at night when he sees agents in suits patting one another over their great success against horrible crime. I wouldn't even be surprised if you let markets grow just to have more money to collect in case you manage to do so.
I will be replaced overnight. Even the entire market will be replaced with the next head of the hydra in no time. You might put my body in a cell, some of us might even be traded as capital between countries for money and favors. Isn't it funny how 'justice' works? However, it doesn't matter to me. This is bigger than you and me.
Please, start working on the root cause. We are a symptom. We are Archetyp.
This letter was not approved, written or read by other staff members of Archetyp prior to publication. Their opinions, motivation and beliefs may vary greatly.
Signed version (Note that this is signed with my key, /u/Obamaphone, this is not an official Archetyp statement. This is my personal beliefs and my personal letter. A manifesto if you will. This is also not an announcement for a retirement nor exit scam. I don't decide about a possible retirement so my message here is totally unrelated to the market's future.):
