I think the difference is that now innocence has been lost. SR seemed so invulnerable. I think the biggest revelation out of the whole thing is that people for a long assumed that just because they got their vacuum-sealed drugs that they weren't, in fact, being "caught".

It has already happened: Sheep Marketplace, http://sheep5u64fi457aw.onion

Most SR vendors are transitionning to this site.

Or it's just a big honeypot.

I think you're right. A relevant thread from Reddit if anyone's interested: http://www.reddit.com/r/SheepMarketplace/comments/1nsmzx/a_f...

Sheep was set up back in like May (the exact dates aren't clear because no one was paying attention), so if it's a honeypot, it was a very far-sighted one. Personally, I strongly doubt it's a honeypot because the Czechs who run it are less competent than LE would be.

What makes you say they're incompetent?

The clearnet version of Sheep has already been closely linked to them. Being in Czechslovakia may impede the investigation, but I still would not want to be using it...

A big honeypot is what the government should put in place before the bust, if it is really on the ball. I'm sure the probability of that is far from 1.

It's going to be a game of whack-a-mole until the US govt infiltrates enough Tor nodes. Which will happen I think, eventually.