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We document the main features of Hydra comparable to useless-drop delivery, feedback and repute system, escrow, mega darknet market and dispute resolution. Using information scraped from the platform, we quantitatively study the scale and the structure of the market. We find that it has been highly competitive, geographically overlaying at the very least 69% of the Russian inhabitants and trading a wide variety of drugs, while additionally allowing the wholesale commerce of drugs and precursors. The useless-drop supply system used on Hydra was costly, because the courier costs comprised a considerable proportion of the sale value of medication on Hydra. We contribute to the research on drug cryptomarkets by finding out an unprecedentedly massive non-Western marketplace that existed considerably longer than another recognized darknet market.

The phenomenon of Hydra exhibits that shut-down policies utilized to darknet marketplaces have a big effect and implicitly shape the whole drug market. Without these policies, a pervasive digitalization of drug commerce can happen. The key price of permitting marketplaces to grow is the probable enhance within the consumption of illegal medication as a result of comfort for customers and facilitated cooperation between suppliers. This value should be weighed towards the potential advantages, including a higher high quality of medicine, a decrease in potential violence, and the incentives for a big market to self-regulate. The case of Hydra additionally suggests the relevance of monetary regulation to restrict the expansion of darknet marketplaces.