Interview with WeTheNorth Market

An unfiltered written interview with WeTheNorth dark web marketplace administrator on opsec, risk, pressure, and underground infrastructure.

Discussions about dark web markets often collapse into extremes: glamorization or demonization. Reality is quieter, messier, and far more technical.
This interview documents the perspective of WeTheNorth dark web marketplace administrator with a focus on operational security, threat modeling, internal failures, and the human cost of sustained anonymity. Read critically. Nothing here is instructional everything here is contextual.

Background & Motivation

What originally motivated you to get involved in running a market rather than just using one?

Tired of exit scams such as CHQ and sad to see our community broken. If only people would stop trying to make a quick buck and instead focused on long-term business.

Do you see yourself as a criminal, a service provider, or something else entirely?

Definitely a service provider. WeTheNorth is just a hub where people can buy what they want online in a safe environment away from the street violence and freaks. Call me stupid, but anyone should be able to do whatever they want, as long as it doesn’t affect other people in a negative way.

At the beginning, what problem did you think your market was solving?

One of the biggest issue of the Darknet is the fact that 95% of it are scams. Bad actors are very present. Therefore were solving that problem by making sure that every transaction that takes place is secured by us. Even if I’m not perfect and mistakes can happen, we take full accountability and use our judgment to come to the best decisions.

Was ideology ever part of it, or did that come later as a justification?

Always part of it. The Canadian Government is a control freak. If we can provide some freedom of speech with our forum so be it. I’m more then happy to do that and will keep doing it until I am no more.

At what point did it stop feeling “experimental” and start feeling serious?

It’s always been serious, especially when your actions have big consequences. Consequences not only on yourself but on the users that put their trust in you. Therefore you better deliver.

Power, Control & Responsibility

How much power does a market admin really have compared to what users think?

Well an Admin has absolute power on his market, as we saw with so many markets that exit scammed in the past. That’s why the dark web is so small at the moment. It’s because its been ravaged by a bunch of scammers over the years, repeating exit scams and running phishing pages. And so people who get scammed or phished don’t come back. And it affects the whole ecosystem.

The people who filter which markets get popularity are certain forums and indexer that we all know. Sometimes they do a very good job, sometimes not. At the end of the day, a market is only as strong as the people behind it.

What responsibilities do you feel toward users, if any?

There is a lot of responsibilities. It’s very important for users to have a good shopping experience, which translate to receiving your goods on time, and enjoying them. In any type of business the customer support must be on point. All issues must be addressed and fixed. All questions answered. When you deal with people’s money you must also be fair, especially in disputes you must investigate issues properly and get to the best possible resolution.

Do you ever intervene in disputes for ethical reasons rather than financial ones?

Of course, over the years, a few people tried pulling a fast one, not necessarily by lying but by forgetting to mention something, or not mentioning that their drugs might contain dangerous substance. You just gotta put yourself in the shoes of the buyer or seller. That’s the whole reason why we do random drug testing, to make sure that people sell what they claim they sell and that all transactions go as smoothly as possible.

Where do you draw the line on what was acceptable on the platform?

As long as people are aware of what they are doing or buying. Then they can do it. Its their body, their choice. If you wanna start drinking or smoking go do it, nobody can tell you what to do. It’s your life. Also no violence. That’s a must. I hate violence. At the end of the day WeTheNorth is a safe place, where people just wanna source the products they like. Scam free, in a honest place.

Does having that level of control change how you viewed people?

No. People are all different, we all have different experiences, are at different points in our lives, are looking for different things. All you can do is try to help people achieve their goals and be happy.

OPSEC Reality vs Myth

What are the most common OPSEC myths users believe that simply are not true?

That if you see java-script your computer is infected and the government is knocking at your door in exactly 20 minutes. People have been brainwashed.

In your experience, are most failures technical or human?

Any failure is human. Code cannot fail by itself, if it fails its human.

What kinds of mistakes tend to compound over time?

Laziness. You gotta wake up everyday and ask yourself, how am I fucking up. What’s coming? Who’s coming? What can i do. Everyday those questions should be asked and worked on, and if you don’t, if you try to do something else then your just giving adversaries an edge over you. And that’s not only with cops, but also with bad actors such as phishers. Those guys have whole teams doing SEO and running the gig.

How much damage is caused by stress, fatigue, or overconfidence?

Stress is normal, you simply have to use it to power your dreams. You wouldn’t believe the amount of work that can be done under stress. It will keep you awake better then any coffee ever will. And make you super focus. Stress is actually one of the best thing, if you can manage it.

On the other hand, sometimes you don’t always feel like superman, and you must sleep it off. If you don’t have energy then your nothing. Your mind and work is not the same. So go eat some, go drink water and go to sleep. A lot of people are working super hard to achieve their dreams, and they forget that health is always first. So you gotta learn to optimize your time, make sure you have enough sleep everyday.

Do you think that admins usually realize they’re compromised, or does it come as a shock?

I guess if you realize your compromised then it’s already too fucking late… All you can do at the end of the day is give your 100% each and everyday to make things work and last forever. Other then that it is what it is. Time will tell.

Trust, Scams & Reputation Systems

How fragile is trust in a darknet market?

Takes 1000 years to build, 1 day to lose.

How often are reputation systems manipulated successfully?

They never are, we get users sending complaints all the time if they think something is shady. Our whole community is actually behind us making the market super safe. So any attempt made to meddle with the trust ratings is instantly seen.

What surprises you most about user behavior around escrow and disputes?

Not a surprise but you can tell how legit someone is by how they handle disputes. Good people that realize they made a mistake just take the responsibility and act correctly to fix any situations. And those people normally rise to the top. Because people come back to them as their service is top notch. Like our top 10 vendors have been selling for a long time, and we almost never have any disputes from them.

Do markets fail more often because of scammers or because of admins?

If a market admin is a scammer then its doomed to fail. There’s actually almost no scam going on WeTheNorth, as we have been online for more the 5 years, users can look up 5 years of feedback’s and forum posts about certain vendors. So scammers really don’t have their places. I would say the biggest scam out there right now for any market is phishing. Phishers works being teams of individuals that build networks of links and work on SEO 24/7 to grab traffic. They will then reverse proxy your site and only change the coins address strings. So users will think they are using the real site and get scammed. Really sad to see. That’s why people need to make sure they are using the real WeTheNorth market links. I believe they are available on DarkDotWeb so go check them out!

In your opinion is “exit scamming” usually planned from the start or triggered by pressure?

Definitely planned. If someone is weak minded they’ll pick quick money 99% of the time. If you give someone 10M to 100M $ to hold, and they are totally anonymous, I believe only 1-5% of the people would not take it. Just look at the Beast Games and see how people act with money. And that’s why the deep-web ecosystem has a bad reputation, it’s because of scammers who want quick money and have no respect in other people. And the legit people must retire after a few years, because of heat and because they just don’t wanna stress anymore probably.

Law Enforcement Pressure

Since when did law enforcement become a constant presence in your thinking?

Since the start. There is always a voice in your head who’s thinking about what’s next.

What kind of pressure is more dangerous: visible take-downs or silence?

Silence. I’d rather know and see what’s coming then getting fucked.

How effective is infiltration compared to technical attacks?

Can’t really answer much in this section, as its part of ongoing security. But were a small market, so anything that is out of the ordinary we know of.

Does paranoia ever become worse than the actual threat?

If your paranoid about something, then fix what your paranoid about. And then move on. It’s all in your mind. Control your thoughts and you’ll control yourself.

In hindsight, what would be the warning signs that things are ending?

Being in handcuffs, That’s probably a sign that you fucked up somewhere. Until then do your best to protect yourself and stay alert and things aren’t ending.

Psychological & Human Cost

What is the mental toll of running a market like?

It’s good to provide a honest service to people that you love and actually make a difference in their lives. Feeling good about it.

How does it affect your sleep, relationships, or sense of time?

Well we are online everyday handling disputes tickets and making sure everything runs smooth and fix any arising issues. That’s not for everyone. But then if you like what you do it’s not work.

Do you feel isolated, even when constantly communicating with others?

Well anyone with good OpSec would know the answer to that. People just can’t understand you and that’s life.

Has there a moment you wanted out but felt trapped?

No, I love giving people a safe space. I have had so many messages from users thanking WeTheNorth that I just feel good about it and it keeps me going. People showing you their appreciation for something you took years building is really nice.

Do admins underestimate how consuming the role becomes?

Well i don’t know for other admins, but there’s always days your feeling good, some other days your feeling down. That’s just life. But you wake up, do what you have to do, and then enjoy every moment. And if you can’t handle it all then you hire someone trustworthy to help you!

Market Failure & Collapse

Why do most markets ultimately fail?

Because of weak minded money hungry scammers. Most of the markets end in exit scam or seizure. Totally avoidable on the exit scam part.

Is success actually a liability in this space?

Define success. I think success is just being able to provide users with a scam-free safe space everyday. That’s success. But then there is no end in sight.

What mistakes do successful admins tend to make later on?

We usually don’t hear about successful admins. Normally we only get the media posts about the ones being caught.

How much of failure comes from internal conflict versus external pressure?

I do what I want to do and what judge is best. So no external pressure. And no internal conflict as well.

If you had to name one unavoidable failure point, what would it be?

Death. Humans and ideas can adapt and evolve for any situation, and i mean any. Unless you die. Then you cannot do anything. So yeah as long as I’m able to sit or stand behind a computer then we’ll keep things running.

Ethics & Harm Reduction

Do darknet markets reduce harm, increase it, or just redistribute it?

Definitely reduce harm. We have a testing program for that which test randomly vendors throughout the year to make sure they accurately describe their listings. Doesn’t really get better then that.

Are users honest with themselves about the risks they take?

Depends what risk your talking about. We are a Canada only market. So seizure risk are close to none. As for the drugs we have 5 years of feedback and drug tests.

What would genuine harm reduction look like in this ecosystem?

What we have at WeTheNorth. People testing the drug and sending back the results. Trusted people with a lot of purchases without any links to vendors.

Is there anything markets could never fix, no matter how well run?

I feel like phishing is always present no matter what. Also the fact that everyone is behind a pseudo. Making trust super hard to get, and usually not well given. That’s just how it works.

What do outsiders misunderstand most about darknet users?

When people hear darknet people instantly think of like Organs trafficking and kidnapping and like the darkest of dark crimes. Gotta stop watching movies man. Were just a bunch of people who like to do what they want and think for our own. Now there’s are some places out there I’m sure, but that’s not our deal on WeTheNorth.

Meta / Reflection Questions

Do you think markets are becoming harder or easier to run over time?

Harder. Controlled by cliques. Whoever has the indexer and traffic can simply redirect it to their scam site or friends and the cycle keeps going.

Despite better tools, encryption, and infrastructure, do the same human mistakes keep causing failure?

Yes, because our tools get better, but so does the government. Especially recently in the last years we have seen a lot of tech upgrade.

Do you believe darknet markets are inevitable?

Yeah, just like amazon is. This is the age of the web.

How do you want your role in this space to be remembered?

No need to remember. Just enjoy the present.

Retrospective & Warnings

What do you wish users understood before ever touching a market?

That it’s great!

If someone is considering running a market, what would you tell them not to do?

Well if they wanna do it then do it. I’m not gonna tell anyone what to do. Just don’t fuck up otherwise your fucked 🙂 .

Is it worth it?

Getting appreciation in tickets everyday is more then worth it. That’s what keeps me going on a day to day basis! So keep em coming !

What part of the story is never told accurately?

The origin of the marketplace. But maybe some day people will know. Or not. Time will tell.

Related articles

WeTheNorth Market PGP key and verified mirrors can be found here below.

WeTheNorth Market PGP Signed Mirrors

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wtnmarket.net
wtnmarket.store
wtnmarket.ru
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Forum:
wtnforum.net
wtnmarket.store/forum
wtnforum.ru/forum
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WeTheNorth Market PGP Key

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