I am not outing myself here. I think it's a silly business, but I've been reading about Ross Ulbricht again and of course Mr Alphabay.

Both of them operated in a very silly manner. Two people knew Ross's involvement in SR from minute one, there's leaving of his gmail address buried in the Bitcointalk server, and his operating SR in public places allowing the feds to grab his laptop before it could be encrypted.

With Mr Alphabay there was of course leaving his email address, but also flaunting Lambos and mountains of property.

So if you were to embark on such a life, how would you do it differently?

I for one would begin by only doing my nefarious business in a locked chamber. If you can wipe your laptop with one button press, you can physically isolate yourself for long enough if someone comes for you.

What else would you do?