alt Hacker News> If your threat model includes an attack like this
The problem is, nobody's threat model includes state level attackers, until one day it does.
Back when Ulbricht was publicly asking questions using an easily uncovered identity, he wasn't thinking that in a few years he'd have the full force of every relevant TLA in the US (and Five Eyes/14 Eyes) trying to track him down.
But he also chose to go on and found a darknet narcotics service. Most people don't do something like that.
Yes, it's vogue right now to speculate that what you're doing right now could suddenly become illegal in a new administration, but if that happens tomorrow, most of us would be one of hundreds of thousands who are all in the same boat. For that reason, most of us won't get targeted retroactively for behaviors that were legal at the time, and we have the option to reevaluate our security posture when the political landscape changes.
But yeah, if you're actively speculating about starting an illegal service today, you should definitely have a better security posture than Ulbricht did.