Drug cryptomarket futures: Structure, function and evolution in response to law enforcement actions

Since cryptomarkets came into public purview in 2011, they have provided some excellent lessons for how the disruptive potential of technology can interact with the drugs trade. Over the last eight years, cryptomarkets have evolved quickly in the face of internal threats posed by malicious actors within their community and the external threat of law enforcement action. Current policy approaches favour disrupting the cryptomarket trade in much the same way as offline drugs markets to further prohibitionist objectives, yet such action seems premature given that the emerging body of evidence suggests differentials in harms and benefits unique to cryptomarkets in comparison to real-world drug markets. This chapter provides an over- view of cryptomarkets and how they have evolved since their inception, as well as how law enforcement tactics have changed over time. We shall consider whether cryptomarkets have the potential to change the global drug markets, and what impacts, if any, they might have on violence, pricing and drug purity. We will also examine the possibilities of harms and benefits that cryptomarkets bring to the global trade in drugs, and these will be shown to be ambiguous and interconnected. We conclude with some concerns about the trajectory of current policy responses to cryptomarkets, and the uncertain and possibly harmful outcomes that may result.