Somewhere along the way, it’s difficult to say when, the counterculture became subverted. What was once a scary, upending technological discovery has shape-shifted into a sensationalist gambling vehicle. Gadsden flags have been replaced by price charts, and the cypherpunks are drowned out by social media influencers. Many of the old-timers still cling to the belief that the complete erosion of Bitcoin’s aura hasn’t occurred, that the collaboration with traditional finance is actually a good thing...

that applications for nation-state strategic reserves show maturation and legitimacy, and that escaping the so-called decrepit origins of the Silk Road means Bitcoin can finally become global money.

But we all know that is a farce, because what was once branded as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system has now become nothing more than a glorified tech stock.

and that by extension, if we imagine a situation that calls for a private and battletested form of digital currency, it would logically follow what is being adopted in underground drug economies.

1. So of the world underground drug economies... what % is actually using 'any' cryptocurrencies?
2. Do you think that Bitcoin (or crypto 'in general') is just a digital currency or digital cash? If there are only 21 million Bitcoins for 100 years... what incentive is there to spend Bitcoin if you have melting government-issued cash on hand?

The answer happens to be the individuals that make up these dark net marketplaces, because if cryptocurrency were to magically disappear, the underground internet economy would collapse overnight.

Uncensorable digital cash has made it so the average Joe can do things that are not approved by governments, and this has tremendous worldwide implications, such as the successful deterrent of things like price discrimination, data mining, or targeted advertising.

Despite the complete takeover of every mainstream financial instrument or medium, the state has little control over peer-to-peer cash node networks hosted by passionate volunteers around the world, and this isn’t the result of billions of dollars of investment by nation states, but by the determination of crypto anarchists embedded in open-source communities.

I must confide to the dear reader that the term darknet market maximalism is a tongue-in-cheek troll. I am fully aware that the outsider will read the title of this manifesto and immediately jump to the erroneous conclusion that we are all hell-bent on overthrowing the government, that we are all criminals, or perhaps even cyber terrorists.

They already brand us as the bad guys with something to hide, and for that reason we playfully acknowledge this, we lean into it, and we frame the conversation as to why free and open-source software would even have this stigma to begin with.

Because similarly, the explosion of darknet markets in the early 2010s caused an enormous amount of interest in Bitcoin. And so by bringing darknet market usage into focus, we add an edge to cryptocurrency that has been forgotten but is wholly necessary for the long term proliferation of parallel economies that threaten the status quo of fiat currency.

Before I finish this introduction, I would like to take a second to acknowledge the ones today who do use cryptocurrency, who do promote parallel economies, and who willfully push for adoption.

The overwhelming majority of cryptocurrency use today has become speculative gambling, and it is only going to get worse unless we push back.

The silly paradox is that after rebranding cryptocurrency into a friendly ecosystem that isn’t just for criminals, we’ve lost the world-changing intensity that made peer-to-peer cash so powerful in the first place.

And because of that, we must turn things back to their roots, and become darknet market maximalists.

Before we can understand why the darknet market maximalist is enlightened, we must examine the root of all of cryptocurrency’s problems—the moonboy.

The moonboy is a cypherpunk in name only, advertising their love for Satoshi in vain attempts to appear cultured.

They are fraudulent, arrogant, tribalistic, and gullible.

They are complacent and believe politicians with photoshops of laser eyes care about them. But here is the worst part of it—because of their insatiable greed, they become overleveraged in hopes of great material gain.

There are investors, for example, who encourage holding cold storage who are good people and valuable contributors to the community. The moonboy, however, is the vocal majority of cryptocurrency holders today, drawn by the volatile free market, which encourages the potentially “face-melting gains” that could let them become the next Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Even worse, while having this degenerate, gambling attitude, they believe they are acting from a position of virtue due to their endorsement of Satoshi and the now watered-down worldview that the early cypherpunks pushed for.

The moonboy is a hypocrite to their core, co-opting the term Bitcoiner to now mean pro-censorship and pro-state, so long as it guarantees the safety of their returns.

The moonboy – “We must do everything we can to become a global currency, even if it means endorsing proprietary software, because more people means my bags will be worth more.”

The darknet market maximalist – “Building parallel economies is the goal. If people aren’t interested in peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, that’s okay, but we should explain the benefits of peer-to-peer cash and lead by example.”