Bitcoin Forum

It occurred to me after seeing the listing, on the wiki trade page for a site, selling sex toys for bitcoins that there could be a problem with malicious "gifts". Since it is difficult or impossible for a merchant to determine if the address a product is sent to belongs to the person ordering it, I can imagine someone ordering a butt plug or ball gag for a local politician they did not like.

More subtle but providentially more dangerous would be sending a product that the recipient was deathly allergic to. Such as a box of peanuts to someone with a strong peanut allergy.

How much of a problem could this be for merchants accepting bitcoins?

Well, how much of a problem is it RIGHT NOW? Because I fail to see how this issue is specific to bitcoin, one of the oldest pranks in the book is ordering a bunch of pizza to your target's house or getting a ton of manure dumped on their driveway.

+1

The problem specific to bitcoin is how difficult it would be to track down the person who paid for the item.

Trying to kill someone by sending them something they are allergic to is a very chancy way to go about it, but if there was no risk of being caught (mined coins + tor) there's bound to be some assholes who would try it.

Your forgetting a factor here.. Common sense.

Who the hell would eat something that they had no idea where it came from?

mmmm forbidden doughnut.....

Here's a crazy idea: If I'm allergic to peanuts and I get some in the mail, guess once what I'll do with them!? NOT EAT THEM.


FFS quit fearmongering because it's a non issue.

I was not thinking of someone eating them. I had remembered news articles involving people would would have severe reactions to simply coming in contact with peanut oil. Something that could happen simply opening a box. However when looking for source to back that up I found that such claims are wildly exaggerated. So that concern is a non-issue. Still there is the issue of more minor harassment with little chance of being caught.

Lol. I'm going to make brokenbottleofpeanutoilforbitcoins.com and anonymousbuttplugsforpoliticians.com right now.

You are asking the wrong question. The question can't be "What can we do to prevent this from happening?" but rather "Who will find the best answer if such a problem occurs?"

You see no single person can possibly answer all the questions to all the problems that exists, hence why the idea of politicians is so ridiculous, I mean as if a title grants them a special kind of wisdom to deal with problems?  ::)

The answer to the right question is always "the free market". If there's going to a problem someone will offer a service to solve that problem and if the service is good and problem big enough people will pay for it and use it and if not that someone will find something else to do. Simple, isn't it?

The point was more should people be aware of this so it doesn't take them by surprise, then how do we prevent it.

I can do this right now fairly anonymously with a prepaid visa debit card I purchased in cash.

I think this is a plus.  Someone needs to start a safe but annoying service.....

Send a distasteful but not dangerous item to a politician service.

The card can be tracked to the time and location it was purchased at. There may be security cam video of you and there is a small chance the clerk remembers you. Granted the chances of any of that information being available or useful gets very small if you bought the card far from home and held on to it for long enough.

So basically if I'm careful I can get away with ordering someone a butt plug with cash, and if I'm careful I can get away with ordering someone a butt plug with bitcoins... can you see why I fail to see this as a real problem or at least a bitcoin specific one?

I feel like a troll in these forums, but here are my 2ct:

This will be the major argument for government action against Bitcoin.

For example e-gold was taken down because of anonymous death threats demanding payment into an anonymous e-gold account.
This is different from cash, because you cannot hand over cash without risk.

It's nearly impossible to take Bitcoin or another decentralized system down, so this must be faced eventually.
With strong anonymity, the only option is to ignore the threats and prevent/punish crime in the real world.
With Bitcoins pseudo anonymity, there might be other solutions.

What does the law says about mailing a package that you don' know the contents and it turns out it was a bomb or some dangerous biological or chemical agent?

Would someone be safe (from the law) if they offered a service involving mailing closed packages received annonymously?

I can mail copies of the Constitution to any politician in the U.S. :D

Bitcoin is like an identity. All the peanut company would need to do is associate your Bitcoin address with your DNA.

The politician may label that item as dangerous. 

+1

heh, I found this thread from http://forumquotes.witcoin.com/p/340/A-distasteful-but-not-dangerous-item-mailed-to-a-politician
interesting idea!

A few years back, Astroglide had a data breach where anyone who had ordered a free sample from their website had their personal data leaked. Among the data, many many people had ordered a sample sent to George W. Bush.

http://consumerist.com/2007/04/astroglide-generously-provides-the-internet-with-a-list-of-250k-people-who-use-their-lube.html

That's the story. Consumerist got it from me, as you can see. :) I was quite fortunate to be able to break the story.

And while doing that, include a copy of "1984".  ::)

Back on topic. When someone sends the peanut oil or the butt plug, the name of the sending company will be most likely on the package. If I would get a package delivered from "ACME Peanut processing" and I would be allergic... I would not accept it (I didn't order it anyway). Same goes for the politician. Plus I think politicians don't accept packages themselves.. and they would go through an x-ray or so before opening them.

How about a buttplug lubricated with peanut oil?

The question I raised was, is it a problem (if a minor one) for a merchant. Someone who is going to be an asshole can be one without any specific tools ( though a butt plug may make them a bigger asshole   ;D ).

In either case you are unlikely to be able to find the culprit. So a particularly annoyed target may take out their irritation on who they can find.

In the case of a debit card you have the merchant who shipped the product, the card issuer and the store that sold the card all sharing the irritation of the target.

In the case of bitcoin there is just the merchant to put up with all the complaints.

Edit: Also since it is a bit easier to do with bitcoins than a debit card, it could be more common with bitcoin accepting merchants.

ITT : someone complaining about bitcoin being an anonymous currency XD

Mail them flour for the lulz.




I think the unabomber would approve.

I like the idea of an anonymous currency. But like anything it has a set of issues that people need to be aware of so those issues can be worked around or prepared for. This may or may not be one of them, but the idea occurred to me and I though it might be interesting to discuss it.

Perhaps merchants selling products particularly prone to mischief would become selective, and only choose to sell to customers with a good reputation.  Who knows?  Let the free market work!