2013-01-02 huffingtonpost.com - Silk Road Crossing: Shopping On The Internet's M

[Akka]

Silk Road Crossing: Shopping On The Internet's Massive Marketplace For Illegal Drugs

Surprisingly neutral article about Silk Road, single chapter about Bitcoin:

...I should try filling my wallet with Bitcoins anyway.

This turns out to be a mistake.

Bitcoins, despite being a currency built on the Internet, are nearly impossible to obtain in a timely fashion. Due to fear of chargeback fraud, most reputable Bitcoin sites won't take PayPal or credit cards, which leaves the option of bank wiring or a deposit system such as Moneygram. I decide to use Moneygram and compound my mistake. I deposit $20, am charged an additional $7 in conversion fees, and end up with $18.57 worth of Bitcoins, according to the online "wallet" where I'm storing the currency (I don't know where the extra $1.43 went). For a system that claims it should eliminate the middleman and hidden fees, Bitcoin...doesn't.

By the time I get my Bitcoin, the Calvin & Hobbes anthology is gone. I probe the Silk Road forums for other non-illegal purchases I can make with Bitcoin and find a Baklava shop and a Mexican restaurant....

Full Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/betsy-isaacson/silk-road-illegal-drugs-online_b_2340477.html

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[grondilu]

This is going to be quite off-topic.

By the time I get my Bitcoin, the Calvin & Hobbes anthology is gone.

In my entire life, I think I had never ever heard of this Calvin & Hobbes comics.  Today I heard about it twice.  The other one was in this Vsauce video, talking about the Calvin&Hobbes search engine.

How weird.

[Roger_Murdock]

This is going to be quite off-topic.

By the time I get my Bitcoin, the Calvin & Hobbes anthology is gone.

In my entire life, I think I had never ever heard of this Calvin & Hobbes comics.  Today I heard about it twice.  The other one was in this Vsauce video, talking about the Calvin&Hobbes search engine.

How weird.

Calvin and Hobbes is great!  I actually just bought the complete anthology.  To make this slightly more on-topic, here are a few money-themed examples:

[Stephen Gornick]

Surprisingly neutral article about Silk Road, single chapter about Bitcoin:

Yup.  Maybe after her description about how hard bitcoins were to obtain she'll end up with a friend or coworker trying to buy them off of her.

Incidentally, Akka, to prevent confusion over how a date is displayed, the YYYY-MM-DD is the convention to use for showing date in the thread titles here in the Press forum.

[Akka]

Incidentally, Akka, to prevent confusion over how a date is displayed, the YYYY-MM-DD is the convention to use for showing date in the thread titles here in the Press forum.

I know that. It's not the first post I made here, but accidents happen. 

[casascius]

It looks like the date format being used now is (YYYY-1)-MM-DD  

[Akka]

Damn it.

Better stop posting for today.

[SwarmStream]

Some real special comments over there:

Well what kind of fool uses a wallet service? Cold storage, or bust. Of course you got ripped off. Also Silk Road is a horrible site, because of media types and worse, "bloggers" using it. Use any other BTC market, but for the love of god don't use Silk Road.

Silk Road is still active? I haven't used them in 5 years.

Her words about DPR and the civility of the Silk Road community were great to read in an article about the "Deep Web".

[payb.tc]

Silk Road is still active? I haven't used them in 5 years.

that one's probably true

[Roger_Murdock]

Bitcoins, despite being a currency built on the Internet, are nearly impossible to obtain in a timely fashion. Due to fear of chargeback fraud, most reputable Bitcoin sites won't take PayPal or credit cards, which leaves the option of bank wiring or a deposit system such as Moneygram. I decide to use Moneygram and compound my mistake. I deposit $20, am charged an additional $7 in conversion fees, and end up with $18.57 worth of Bitcoins, according to the online "wallet" where I'm storing the currency (I don't know where the extra $1.43 went). For a system that claims it should eliminate the middleman and hidden fees, Bitcoin...doesn't.

This is like complaining about the crappy gas mileage you get on the drive to the car dealership to trade in your gas guzzler for a Prius (and, based on the exchange method she chose, picking a dealership that's about 3,000 miles out of the way). And then concluding with: "For a car that claims it should reduce the money you spend on gas, the Prius ... doesn't." For God's sake, she just spent $7 to send a $20 Moneygram! That experience should have driven home why Bitcoin is so revolutionary. But instead it somehow means that Bitcoin isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's actually kind of surreal.  It's like most people are too close to the legacy monetary system to even see it. 

Despite my disinterest in drugs and the absurdity of all websites that facilitate illegal transactions....

The only thing that's "absurd" about the Silk Road is the drug war that made it necessary. Using state violence in a largely-futile effort to control what adults choose to put into their own bodies and consciousness - THAT'S absurd.  A website that enables people to engage in voluntary exchange without becoming victims of that violence - that's beautiful.   

[BitLucky]

Bitcoins, despite being a currency built on the Internet, are nearly impossible to obtain in a timely fashion. Due to fear of chargeback fraud, most reputable Bitcoin sites won't take PayPal or credit cards, which leaves the option of bank wiring or a deposit system such as Moneygram. I decide to use Moneygram and compound my mistake. I deposit $20, am charged an additional $7 in conversion fees, and end up with $18.57 worth of Bitcoins, according to the online "wallet" where I'm storing the currency (I don't know where the extra $1.43 went). For a system that claims it should eliminate the middleman and hidden fees, Bitcoin...doesn't.

This is like complaining about the crappy gas mileage you get on the drive to the car dealership to trade in your gas guzzler for a Prius (and, based on the exchange method she chose, picking a dealership that's about 3,000 miles out of the way). And then concluding with: "For a car that claims it should reduce the money you spend on gas, the Prius ... doesn't." For God's sake, she just spent $7 to send a $20 Moneygram! That experience should have driven home why Bitcoin is so revolutionary. But instead it somehow means that Bitcoin isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's actually kind of surreal.  It's like most people are too close to the legacy monetary system to even see it. 

Despite my disinterest in drugs and the absurdity of all websites that facilitate illegal transactions....

The only thing that's "absurd" about the Silk Road is the drug war that made it necessary. Using state violence in a largely-futile effort to control what adults choose to put into their own bodies and consciousness - THAT'S absurd.  A website that enables people to engage in voluntary exchange without becoming victims of that violence - that's beautiful.   

QFT

[Spaceman_Spiff]

In my entire life, I think I had never ever heard of this Calvin & Hobbes comics.

Me neither 

[Akka]

In my entire life, I think I had never ever heard of this Calvin & Hobbes comics.

Me neither 

Isn't that Calvin in you Avatar?

[DeathAndTaxes]

In my entire life, I think I had never ever heard of this Calvin & Hobbes comics.

Me neither 

Isn't that Calvin in you Avatar?

Uh no it's spaceman spiff.

[Akka]

In my entire life, I think I had never ever heard of this Calvin & Hobbes comics.

Me neither  

Isn't that Calvin in you Avatar?

Uh no it's spaceman spiff.

But...

[Spaceman_Spiff]

In my entire life, I think I had never ever heard of this Calvin & Hobbes comics.

Me neither  

Isn't that Calvin in you Avatar?

Uh no it's spaceman spiff.

But...

Darnit, my secret identity is revealed !