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Economy => Service Discussion => Topic started by: turtlehurricane on May 15, 2014, 12:27:53 PM



Title: ...
Post by: turtlehurricane on May 15, 2014, 12:27:53 PM
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Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: bryant.coleman on May 15, 2014, 01:35:55 PM
Actually the admins of the SR 2.0 have proved themselves to be a honest and trustworthy bunch. Even after a hacker stole thousands of BTC from their wallet, the admins refunded the users with their own money. Their actions were quite a revelation, at a time when the entire Bitcoin sector is flooded with con artists and crooks.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: Ron~Popeil on May 15, 2014, 03:13:31 PM
People will always find ways to get the things they want no matter how hard government tries to prevent it. There will always be people willing to deliver these goods and services as well. Usually at a hefty premium.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: franky1 on May 16, 2014, 12:42:13 AM
Actually the admins of the SR 2.0 have proved themselves to be a honest and trustworthy bunch. Even after a hacker stole thousands of BTC from their wallet, the admins refunded the users with their own money. Their actions were quite a revelation, at a time when the entire Bitcoin sector is flooded with con artists and crooks.

you realise the best con a conman does is to take peoples money. tell them it was stolen, but offer to reimburse it.

this method has been done by many boiler rooms and conartists for years, it costs nothing and the reality is that funds never move/were ever lost. and was purely a story to gain trust.

the easiest way to spot a 'story' is when the business does not close shop to redevelop its security, to audit balances or even simply show actual proof of theft beyond just their words


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: Beliathon on May 16, 2014, 03:35:55 AM
you realise the best con a conman does is to take peoples money. tell them it was stolen, but offer to reimburse it.

this method has been done by many boiler rooms and conartists for years, it costs nothing and the reality is that funds never move/were ever lost. and was purely a story to gain trust.

the easiest way to spot a 'story' is when the business does not close shop to redevelop its security, to audit balances or even simply show actual proof of theft beyond just their words
QFT, don't leave your money in someone else's wallet, for any reason, ever.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: beetcoin on May 16, 2014, 03:38:25 AM
Actually the admins of the SR 2.0 have proved themselves to be a honest and trustworthy bunch. Even after a hacker stole thousands of BTC from their wallet, the admins refunded the users with their own money. Their actions were quite a revelation, at a time when the entire Bitcoin sector is flooded with con artists and crooks.

that's what i heard. and SR 2.0 is actually, in some ways, bigger than the old SR.. kind of a funny fact to me. the drug peddlers are actually the honest bunch.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: Bit_Happy on May 16, 2014, 03:46:48 AM
Actually the admins of the SR 2.0 have proved themselves to be a honest and trustworthy bunch. Even after a hacker stole thousands of BTC from their wallet, the admins refunded the users with their own money. Their actions were quite a revelation, at a time when the entire Bitcoin sector is flooded with con artists and crooks.

you realise the best con a conman does is to take peoples money. tell them it was stolen, but offer to reimburse it.

this method has been done by many boiler rooms and conartists for years, it costs nothing and the reality is that funds never move/were ever lost. and was purely a story to gain trust.

the easiest way to spot a 'story' is when the business does not close shop to redevelop its security, to audit balances or even simply show actual proof of theft beyond just their words

That story is very suspect:
If the admins are already wealthy enough to pay back "thousands of BTC" from their own funds, then why are they taking the enormous risk of running SR 2?
Silly "libertarians" and their utopian free market.  :D


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: beetcoin on May 16, 2014, 03:49:40 AM
Actually the admins of the SR 2.0 have proved themselves to be a honest and trustworthy bunch. Even after a hacker stole thousands of BTC from their wallet, the admins refunded the users with their own money. Their actions were quite a revelation, at a time when the entire Bitcoin sector is flooded with con artists and crooks.

you realise the best con a conman does is to take peoples money. tell them it was stolen, but offer to reimburse it.

this method has been done by many boiler rooms and conartists for years, it costs nothing and the reality is that funds never move/were ever lost. and was purely a story to gain trust.

the easiest way to spot a 'story' is when the business does not close shop to redevelop its security, to audit balances or even simply show actual proof of theft beyond just their words

That story is very suspect:
If the admins are already wealthy enough to pay back "thousands of BTC" from their own funds, then why are they taking the enormous risk of running SR 2?
Silly "libertarians" and their utopian free market.  :D

i don't know the full story, but the money lost could have only been the amount in escrow, in which case it wouldn't be as much as it'd be if everyone's wallet had been hijacked. that money could be paid back fairly quickly.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: franky1 on May 16, 2014, 03:50:41 AM
this thread should be used as scientific research.

everyone says drugs make drug users paranoid. yet this thread is proving that druggies are not paranoid and trust strangers, that they will never meet face to face with large amounts of money

these con men tricks are to make people think its safe to use their service to store lots of funds, instead of just trusting them with small amounts for that days transactions.

be smart leave your main 'savings' in a proper bitcoin -core wallet and only use daily spend amounts. whether its SR or an exchange or any other third party service.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: beetcoin on May 16, 2014, 04:25:25 AM
this thread should be used as scientific research.

everyone says drugs make drug users paranoid. yet this thread is proving that druggies are not paranoid and trust strangers, that they will never meet face to face with large amounts of money

these con men tricks are to make people think its safe to use their service to store lots of funds, instead of just trusting them with small amounts for that days transactions.

be smart leave your main 'savings' in a proper bitcoin -core wallet and only use daily spend amounts. whether its SR or an exchange or any other third party service.

imo, i think it's the opposite.. druggies are a bit too trusting since their inhibitions have been lowered by the drugs. they're also more desperate for their stash, so they'd be willing to take on the high risk of buying illegal substances through the internet.

best way to lose your money is to gamble while you're on shit.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: jc01480 on May 16, 2014, 05:03:16 AM
I believe the publicity surrounding the "takedown" of Dread Pirate Roberts and the Silk Road merely sensationalized to an entirely new generation that you CAN use technology to achieve all methods of crime.  I can tell you from experience, someone within the FBI wanted to make an achievement noteworthy to attain higher standing within the agency.  If you compared the amount of funds seized to the actual man hours clocked in total investigating this crime you'd likely see that there is a huge deficit.  In other words, tens of millions probably went in to this investigation.  All for a couple of fish and maybe 3 mil in BTC.  

Yep, they deterred nothing and created ten more just like it.  Kind of reminds one of the whole jihadist thing.  Kill one and you create a generation more.  

Edit:  What they don't want you to know is what they really don't, and probably will never, know.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: grtthegreat on May 16, 2014, 05:08:13 AM
Just hope some more good and famous marketplaces like Silk Road emerge so that there's a chance for people like me to earn some BTC.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 16, 2014, 05:39:46 AM
How does a SR work? Do you just go to the website and see lots of drugs for sale, you put it in a cart and checkout?


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: beetcoin on May 16, 2014, 06:04:27 AM
How does a SR work? Do you just go to the website and see lots of drugs for sale, you put it in a cart and checkout?

well, yeah. that's how it works basically. i read there's an escrow system which is to help prevent fraud. the funds held in escrow are released when the buyer receives his stuff.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: Malin Keshar on May 16, 2014, 06:39:09 AM
even if the stolen coins haven't really been stolen and this have been just a marketing maneuver, that don't make them dishonest, since they could just shut down any day and just run away with all the bitcoins.


What i wonder is how the deliver is done. By common mail service? Can't the sellers be tracked back this way?

And what happens if they identify a drug packet addressed to me? I'm afraid if someone from my real life that dislikes me discovers my interest about bitcoin, he could just buyy something from sick road, anonymously alert the police and put me in trouble.


 


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: beetcoin on May 16, 2014, 07:00:56 AM
even if the stolen coins haven't really been stolen and this have been just a marketing maneuver, that don't make them dishonest, since they could just shut down any day and just run away with all the bitcoins.


What i wonder is how the deliver is done. By common mail service? Can't the sellers be tracked back this way?

And what happens if they identify a drug packet addressed to me? I'm afraid if someone from my real life that dislikes me discovers my interest about bitcoin, he could just buyy something from sick road, anonymously alert the police and put me in trouble.


 

that's still dishonest, because even though you're giving those coins back, you are taking them away from people without their permission.. all for your benefit. i don't think that's what happened though, but who knows.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: RomertL on May 16, 2014, 09:25:29 AM
Actually the admins of the SR 2.0 have proved themselves to be a honest and trustworthy bunch. Even after a hacker stole thousands of BTC from their wallet, the admins refunded the users with their own money. Their actions were quite a revelation, at a time when the entire Bitcoin sector is flooded with con artists and crooks.

you realise the best con a conman does is to take peoples money. tell them it was stolen, but offer to reimburse it.

this method has been done by many boiler rooms and conartists for years, it costs nothing and the reality is that funds never move/were ever lost. and was purely a story to gain trust.

the easiest way to spot a 'story' is when the business does not close shop to redevelop its security, to audit balances or even simply show actual proof of theft beyond just their words

I think that would be a questionable strategy.  I'm not sure everybody would prefer an exchange who one time has been hacked but who returned the coins to an exchange that has never been hacked.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: haploid23 on May 16, 2014, 10:35:55 AM
You won't ever truly take down silk road, because it's more of an idea that these users live by. Similar to this war on terrorism that the US is fighting. Look how long that's been going on, and how much longer it must go on, only realizing in the end that we cannot completely kill it off. It's all done for politics.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: Beliathon on May 16, 2014, 10:57:25 AM
Silly "libertarians" and their utopian free market.  :D
Indeed. Capitalism is a religion, and economics is (http://azizonomics.com/2012/05/02/the-pseudoscience-of-economics/) a pseudoscience (http://www.god-and-country.info/EconIntro.html). The nation-state as we know it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLCEXtpTNYU) is on its way out.

This whole game we're playing is a series of myths, behaviors we have inherited from the industrial age and feudal traditions (rent!) we haven't yet figured out how to transcend. Or have we? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joITmEr4SjY)


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 16, 2014, 03:14:52 PM
How does a SR work? Do you just go to the website and see lots of drugs for sale, you put it in a cart and checkout?

well, yeah. that's how it works basically. i read there's an escrow system which is to help prevent fraud. the funds held in escrow are released when the buyer receives his stuff.

Wow that's wild. No wonder the Mercian popo wants to shut it down. It makes the drug war look so stupid if you can ship it straight to a house. They should call it Amazope or Dopeazon. Then you could have Amazope Prime. They can't get it to you in two days guaranteed but they could smoke it for you and guarantee to tell you what a great high it was within two days.

Is anybody concerned that Amazope is just a government honey pot for little piggies that want more slop in their trough?


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: beetcoin on May 16, 2014, 04:11:43 PM
How does a SR work? Do you just go to the website and see lots of drugs for sale, you put it in a cart and checkout?

well, yeah. that's how it works basically. i read there's an escrow system which is to help prevent fraud. the funds held in escrow are released when the buyer receives his stuff.

Wow that's wild. No wonder the Mercian popo wants to shut it down. It makes the drug war look so stupid if you can ship it straight to a house. They should call it Amazope or Dopeazon. Then you could have Amazope Prime. They can't get it to you in two days guaranteed but they could smoke it for you and guarantee to tell you what a great high it was within two days.

Is anybody concerned that Amazope is just a government honey pot for little piggies that want more slop in their trough?

it's probably a lot safer than buying drugs out on the street too. less likely to get shanked, and not to mention that you can see reviews of a vendor's reputation... so you have a better idea of who you are dealing with.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: bananas on May 16, 2014, 04:15:11 PM
that's a game the governement can't win. if it is closed another market will take the customers and so on, it will last forever


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: Beliathon on May 16, 2014, 07:38:47 PM
It makes the drug war look so stupid if you can ship it straight to a house.
The drug war isn't just a stupid, massively expensive unsustainable failure. It's also asinine, greedy, and cruel.

Please see: Ending the War on Drugs with Compassion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlD6OdbuDK4)

Please read The New Jim Crow. (http://newjimcrow.com/)


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: trout on May 16, 2014, 08:07:18 PM
I looked at the tor listings recently, and the drug markets appear to be flourishing.
There is a dozen now, SR2.0 is apparently the biggest, but there are 3-4 with a close
volume. What is more, several of them offer multisig escrow, so the market cannot steal
the funds.  That seems really cool.

 I don't know whether any implements hedging against price fluctuations,
like SR did. Anyone knows?


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: beetcoin on May 16, 2014, 08:37:49 PM
yeah, funny enough as it is.. the silk road and the internet drug marketplace might actually do more good than harm. that toppled with legal marijuana sweeping across the nation.. maybe in 10 years the drug cartels will become weaker, but then again i bet silk road's goods come from the cartels anyways.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 16, 2014, 09:13:51 PM
I looked at the tor listings recently, and the drug markets appear to be flourishing.
There is a dozen now, SR2.0 is apparently the biggest, but there are 3-4 with a close
volume. What is more, several of them offer multisig escrow, so the market cannot steal
the funds.  That seems really cool.

 I don't know whether any implements hedging against price fluctuations,
like SR did. Anyone knows?

Do they all use Bitcoin? I would think that there are better options than that now. Bitcoin is too "under the microscope" to be useful for drugs now.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: beetcoin on May 16, 2014, 09:36:38 PM
I looked at the tor listings recently, and the drug markets appear to be flourishing.
There is a dozen now, SR2.0 is apparently the biggest, but there are 3-4 with a close
volume. What is more, several of them offer multisig escrow, so the market cannot steal
the funds.  That seems really cool.

 I don't know whether any implements hedging against price fluctuations,
like SR did. Anyone knows?

Do they all use Bitcoin? I would think that there are better options than that now. Bitcoin is too "under the microscope" to be useful for drugs now.

what other cryptocurrency is actually being used these days though? almost all of them are purely speculation. i guess it could work if you start using it though.. what coin though, maybe doge?


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 16, 2014, 10:46:15 PM
I looked at the tor listings recently, and the drug markets appear to be flourishing.
There is a dozen now, SR2.0 is apparently the biggest, but there are 3-4 with a close
volume. What is more, several of them offer multisig escrow, so the market cannot steal
the funds.  That seems really cool.

 I don't know whether any implements hedging against price fluctuations,
like SR did. Anyone knows?

Do they all use Bitcoin? I would think that there are better options than that now. Bitcoin is too "under the microscope" to be useful for drugs now.

what other cryptocurrency is actually being used these days though? almost all of them are purely speculation. i guess it could work if you start using it though.. what coin though, maybe doge?

Make a special altcoin for drugs and make the features support anonymity right out of the gate. Call it Amazope payments. lol


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: beetcoin on May 16, 2014, 11:39:12 PM
I looked at the tor listings recently, and the drug markets appear to be flourishing.
There is a dozen now, SR2.0 is apparently the biggest, but there are 3-4 with a close
volume. What is more, several of them offer multisig escrow, so the market cannot steal
the funds.  That seems really cool.

 I don't know whether any implements hedging against price fluctuations,
like SR did. Anyone knows?

Do they all use Bitcoin? I would think that there are better options than that now. Bitcoin is too "under the microscope" to be useful for drugs now.

what other cryptocurrency is actually being used these days though? almost all of them are purely speculation. i guess it could work if you start using it though.. what coin though, maybe doge?

Make a special altcoin for drugs and make the features support anonymity right out of the gate. Call it Amazope payments. lol

that might work, if there are any features that a site like SR could use. but then they'd have to get a marketplace to accept their currency, and since those coins won't be easy to purchase/access, it probably wouldn't work out so well. there are currently way, way more ways to get bitcoin now than say dogecoin.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 17, 2014, 07:08:18 AM
I looked at the tor listings recently, and the drug markets appear to be flourishing.
There is a dozen now, SR2.0 is apparently the biggest, but there are 3-4 with a close
volume. What is more, several of them offer multisig escrow, so the market cannot steal
the funds.  That seems really cool.

 I don't know whether any implements hedging against price fluctuations,
like SR did. Anyone knows?

Do they all use Bitcoin? I would think that there are better options than that now. Bitcoin is too "under the microscope" to be useful for drugs now.

what other cryptocurrency is actually being used these days though? almost all of them are purely speculation. i guess it could work if you start using it though.. what coin though, maybe doge?

Make a special altcoin for drugs and make the features support anonymity right out of the gate. Call it Amazope payments. lol

that might work, if there are any features that a site like SR could use. but then they'd have to get a marketplace to accept their currency, and since those coins won't be easy to purchase/access, it probably wouldn't work out so well. there are currently way, way more ways to get bitcoin now than say dogecoin.

That's true but the old SR used Bitcoin long before it became popular. The only way to get it would be to mine or go to Gox. They may struggle for a while but in the end it would be worth it for a truly anonymous method of payment designed for their use.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: btcusury on May 17, 2014, 10:51:59 PM
Many people underestimate the power of ideas. Watch V for Vendetta.

There's something intrinsically attractive in being at the leading edge of the only truly free market in the world. Not to mention the chill of the risk. A lot of money through honest business might be preferrable to "even more money for material gain".

Then again, the claimed hack and subsequent repayment of the allegedly stolen funds could also be part of a clever IC plan to pull off the biggest heist in Bitcoin history yet, outdoing MTGox.


QuestionAuthority, the funny thing is that a crypto specialist would assume that darknet markets are run by "law enforcement (under threat of force)", but would conclude that this is irrelevant so long as the seller is honest. The most concerning possible threat is sophisticated heuristic blockchain analysis, you are right, but nonetheless a crypto-currency without a multi-petahash rate to back it can easily be 51% attacked by governments; and your idea has already been attempted (PotCoin, DopeCoin, probably several others). Dark Wallet and other such innovations (and multisig / decentralized escrow) will be the future of the darknet markets.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 17, 2014, 11:14:40 PM
Many people underestimate the power of ideas. Watch V for Vendetta.

There's something intrinsically attractive in being at the leading edge of the only truly free market in the world. Not to mention the chill of the risk. A lot of money through honest business might be preferrable to "even more money for material gain".

Then again, the claimed hack and subsequent repayment of the allegedly stolen funds could also be part of a clever IC plan to pull off the biggest heist in Bitcoin history yet, outdoing MTGox.


QuestionAuthority, the funny thing is that a crypto specialist would assume that darknet markets are run by "law enforcement (under threat of force)", but would conclude that this is irrelevant so long as the seller is honest. The most concerning possible threat is sophisticated heuristic blockchain analysis, you are right, but nonetheless a crypto-currency without a multi-petahash rate to back it can easily be 51% attacked by governments; and your idea has already been attempted (PotCoin, DopeCoin, probably several others). Dark Wallet and other such innovations (and multisig / decentralized escrow) will be the future of the darknet markets.


Interesting, I didn't know there already were coins for that. I don't really follow the trends in altcoins. Dark-wallet shows a lot of promise.


Title: Re: The Silk Road marketplace lives on, despite intense government efforts
Post by: bryant.coleman on May 19, 2014, 01:48:47 AM
Actually the admins of the SR 2.0 have proved themselves to be a honest and trustworthy bunch. Even after a hacker stole thousands of BTC from their wallet, the admins refunded the users with their own money. Their actions were quite a revelation, at a time when the entire Bitcoin sector is flooded with con artists and crooks.

that's what i heard. and SR 2.0 is actually, in some ways, bigger than the old SR.. kind of a funny fact to me. the drug peddlers are actually the honest bunch.

I will agree with you there. The drug peddlers are much more honest and trustworthy, when compared to the bankers and politicians. Definitely not all of them, but a large majority.