Bitcoin Forum

I see an issue of Bitcoin potentially allowing youth to anonymously acquire harmful drugs. For instance, I am under the age of 18 but I was able to easily acquire a electronic e-cig vaporizer with Bitcoins, no questions ask. Now, this was relatively harmless in the scheme of things but seeing The SilkRoad and other sites, I imagine it being more dangerous in theory.

Should we just accept this as a tragedy of the commons or think of some solutions?

It's the inevitable downside to an unregulated and untraceable currency.  Without fundamentally changing Bitcoin (and challenging the ideals of it), we have no choice but to accept the consequences.

EDIT:  But on the upside, maybe this will help parents become real parents again, instead of relying on the government to protect their children from anything the government deems "unsafe".

It's the inevitable downside to a currency. We have no choice but to accept the consequences.

When you give you did $20 bucks, can you tell where he/she spent it?

I think the responsibility falls under the parents for controlling what their child is exposed to on the net. It's not the fault of the currency at all imo. This is a good thing just like you say having real parents again.

I'd say even cash is a little more traceable.  You have banks that track the serial numbers on bills that come through.  You know when it was issued, and for how much.  You can gather DNA (?) or drug evidence from bills.  They can be marked (as some drug stores do, in order to help police track them in case of a robbery).

*shrug*

arnt one of the points of bitcoin the fact that its pretty much untraceable?

Being a BitCoin consultor for DEA or other goverment anti-drugs organizations will probably be an interesting and really well paid job.

Attn Parents: Reconsider letting your teenage boy open that thick letter addressed to him that has come from another country.

This is inevitable of course. The problem lies not in what currency is used, but in what parenting is being done. Since the state took over the job as a parent (mandatory schooling from age 5) I don't guess Bitcoin can be blamed for under age drug use

Yeah, for narcs.

This is a fallacy. Bitcoin is the most traceble currency ever. You can trace every single unit of bitcoins from the present to the point of creation. However, you can only trace it from one bitcoin adress to another. If you take the right steps to make sure that your adress can't be traced back to your person, then it's untraceable in the way that mathers.

I think this is great and we'll have less idiots in the world. Kid, who swallows too many pills, doesn't live to reproduce. Darwin would be proud of Bitcoin

You're not human, are you?

This is a problem with bitcoin as a specific currency because?

It should be the responsibility of both you and the party selling you a regulated product, that the trade is possible.

I am a cat god damn it ;D There's even a picture
Besides, I don't think we are anymore special or important than any other species and rules of nature shouldn't be bent to accommodate the survival of the weakest/most stupid.

Of course but usually individual humans gain value from just the mere existence of other humans alone. A natural empathy is in order.

Wait. I can fix this.
Ok kids, nobody do any more drugs.
There, that should do it.

as far as I'm concerned this is not a bitcoin problem.

Anthony Weiner doesn't recognize photos of his genitals. Chris Farley would be proud of him. Makes perfect sense.

Parent to gov: Why can't I be free?!
gov: you might to drugs.

Child: Why can't I be free?!
everyone: you might do drugs.

Pass on the tyranny I guess.

Are you kidding me? What value?

Just being human can be considered a virtue, at least in my perspective.

 ;D
I am really not prepared to have this argument tonight, but let me just say - being human has no more virtue than being a chicken or a stone. Don't let the box in the corner of your room brainwash you - you are not important or special in any way. I know, thinking that we are pleases our ego, but we are not. You are the same as everybody else. It's what you do with your life and actions towards others that makes us "valuable/useless".

I highly recommend LSD. It's very difficult to explain to someone who's not done any, that what you experience as reality is just a very tiny portion of it and is from your ego perceptive.

Also this http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1604695578417499645#
It's a little outdated, but a good laugh nonetheless

I don't think you are understanding me. I take great pleasure in being human. Seeing that somebody else is capable of the same amount of pleasure brings value to me.

Our definition of value is very different then

I presume you take others out of the equation. Which can be justified given that there is nothing verifying our sentience.

"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile."

... also recommended are the works of H.P. Lovecraft. 

It's a purely subjective statement. Any one perception can take pleasure in the nuanced parts of our being. ...and one person can make all the difference for another.

Yes, it's classic

Bitcoin is like cash, if you're worried that your kid may do drugs, don't give them any cash or bitcoins, and let them get a job and don't let them mine coins. Or you can just talk to them, with some graphic stories and have them spend a day with a crackhead, that should work way better then the usual 'drugs are bad' spiel.

Yea, not all drugs are good - some of them are GREAT! Kids should understand that