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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a5/Silk_Road_Logo.png/250px-Silk_Road_Logo.png

Within the shadowly depths of the darkweb lurks characters of questionable motives. However, there also exist services which have hidden benefits unbeknownst to the average user. Certainly, marketplaces such as the Silk Road secure the identities of individuals with less-than-noble intentions, yet there remains a silver lining among these darkweb services: their ability to provide an alternative to and undermine the profitability of real-world, entrenched organized crime.

The silk road makes use of strong encryption, both of our communications and, now with bitcoin, our money supply as well. This cryptographic method of communication and commerce combined make for a formidable opportunity to conduct business outside the grasp of enforcement authorities which have previously been able to sniff out and crack down on illegal operations within their borders. Strong encryption not only punctures a glaring hole in the enforcement ability of authorities, but creates a playing field governed by rules which recognize no man-made laws. In this amoral dimension, the rules of the game have changed completely. No longer can you ‘cheat’ the system, because the system itself is enforced by the laws of physics and computational science rather than judicial proceedings. This radical reshaping of law is something which has the potential to reshape the very root of our societies.

Read the full post on Diginomics (http://news.diginomics.com/silk-road-is-a-blessing-in-disguise/)

Silk Road had its own disadvantages and advantages. Among the advantages, it made sure that recreational drugs such as cannabis can be bought by ordinary users, who don't need to risk their lives and savings by approaching criminal drug peddlers for the same. Many of the organized drug trafficking cartels saw their profits dwindle. Once the market place was closed down, Silk Road 2.0 rapidly filled the gap. SR 2.0 at its peak was much bigger than the original Silk Road at any point of its existence. Now let's hope that SR 3.0 will be able to overtake 2.0.  ;D

Im not into any kind of ilegal drugs, but I guess Silk Road gave a lot of publicity to Bitcoin, I started because of the first Silk Road news. All publicity is good publicity after all.

I wholeheartedly agree. Let me give a hypothetical situation. Some drug addicts, will remain drug addicts no matter what (when I say drug addicts, i'm referring to hard drugs like heroin or meth). Some of these people are soo addicted to these hard drugs that they will do things normal people wouldn't even think of. It might be violence, it might be stealing, it might even be murder. Silk road stops all that shit, because unless you pay WITH REAL CRYPTOGRAPHIC CURRENCY, you will not get your drugs. You can't cheat this system, you can't steal, and you can't murder anybody. This fact makes the drug trade business much safer. And let's be honest here, drugs and hard drug addicts are not going to go away anytime soon. The best option, is cyptocurrency and silk road. Nobody gets hurt. And if the end drug user starts acting weird in public or doing illegal stuff, then he will get arrested anyways.

Exactly. This means that even if he wants to live through hell, the addict and him alone will do so. No more selling the family, no more stealing or any bullshit like that. You either have the money or you don't, and the only one that will end up fucked up are you alone.


OpenBazaar. It doesn't even need to be a dark market, just an eBay with both legal and illegal stuff that cannot be shut down.

It is not about that.  It is about freedom that we are currently fighting for.. lady freedom is on her death bed.. satoshi saved her from death it is our responsiblity to revive her.

They're in beta right now, but they stated that they hope to have it completed by early 2015.
Their website can be found here:
https://openbazaar.org/

Also, it's not only about drugs. It's any item, any service, any product you want to sell, without middlemen.

You could say that it's freedom in other countries, but countries who spy on their citizens make it almost impossible.

Does it? Who do you think are selling their wares on Silk Road? Innocent computer geeks? I agree with the principles of Silk Road as a free market but it still largely organized crime gangs selling the drugs. They just move from the street to the deepweb where they're safer. Tormarkets may make the world governments rethink their drug policies, though.

What makes you believe that "Dark Markets" are something other than real world, entrenched, organized crime? 

I have never used it myself, but I certainly see it not as something bad.

As far as I know Silk Road was the first merchant accepting Bitcoin and generating huge loads of transaction volume.

i don't think Silk road was a blessing. What I see as positive if that the original Silk road is dead, but that BTC survived, and it's getting stronger.

Don't pop their 'Ross is a hero' dreams.

I could get behind a dark market that linked you straight to a poppy farmer in Afghanistan.

Other than that they're there to enrich the same old human garbage with a slightly more palatable platform.

The organized crime element will be around as long as prohibition lasts. The value of the dark markets was that they provided a harm reduction vehicle. UPS and USPS drivers don't have shoot outs in residential neighborhoods. The feedback mechanisms also improved the quality of such products which makes them inherently safer. 

Connect me to a poppy farmer in Afghanistan, yes please  ;)

Only a small part of that huge trade volume was accounted by the drugs and other banned items. The remaining came from perfectly legal items, such as cigars, electronics and ebooks. 

Anything that reduces exposure to scummy street elements is a good thing, but it does nothing to reduce the utter misery that the business inflicts on millions before it magically arrives through your letterbox.