Grams search engine shuts down

This week we came across various reports that Grams would be shutting down for good.

Quoting the famous line from Douglas Adams book in a Reddit post, the operator of Grams announced that they are giving up. The site is giving a small grace period for people to get their business in order and withdraw Bitcoin, which is more than most Dark Web sites do when they go belly up. Bitcoin that’s still unclaimed at the time of final shutdown will be donated to charity.

When asked why Grams was shutting down, the owner had this to say on Reddit:

“Competitors have taken a lot of my business from the tumbling and with the high fees per transaction lately it is hard to even break even. The money is not worth the stress of maintaining the site.”

The admin also confirmed that the shutdown was not related to law enforcement.

“No , I have had no problems with LE, it is mostly just time and stress that leading my decisions.”

Grams has been running since 2014. Yet it’s had a major impact on the world of illegal drug trade and arms trade. For governments and law enforcement agencies it’s obviously been a major pain in the behind. While those who love freedom and anarchic politics have praised Grams as a revolutionary force in all senses of the word.

Yet, it’s not strange for pioneering sites and technologies to shut down. A more refined successor is doubtlessly in the wings. In fact, as the Grams admin indicated, this is already the case. We’ve seen it happen with Napster. The Grams void will be filled probably very soon.