Do you see Silk Road's closure as a positive or negative?

[Paleus]

BTC

Looking to get a feel for the communty's perception on this one as it seems many people are divided.

Personally, I don't think it will make a difference in the long run. Coming down the pipe are plenty of other services that are aiming to fill the now void illegal drug marketplace. Silk Road may have been the biggest fish out there, but another will in time take its place. If anything, the events of today send a message that there is no such thing as anonymity. No, not simply because DPR was found, but because of the stories which have surfaced about how close customer's accounts and information were to being disclosed that it was necessary to hire an assassin. The FBI is sending a message that they do indeed have a strong grip on digital economies. Silk Road was one of the biggest bitcoin marketplaces and it was a business which gave the currency strength. We now have a far more limited array of options to use our bitcoin on.

I was a customer on Silk Road, and although it opened me to the option of purchasing drugs that would normally be completely out of my reach, I only ever purchased books. I also enjoyed frequenting the forums where interesting discussion not found on surface forums was the norm. Obvously there are other forums on Tor, but these readings helped deliver ideas and perspectives that were outside mainstream views, and offered a healthy dose into true developments which are happening in our lifetime. This access to hidden literature and discussion will be sorely missed.

If we have no way of exercising inalienable rights, such as using a medicinal herb with powerful healing properties, the currency itself is irrelevant. With recent exposures of the NSA, it is quite clear we have descended into an Orwellian society. Not only is EVERYTHING now monitored for the sake of "security", we have nowhere to go to speak, act, or enjoy life's most outlier experiences. How can a corporate or government entity prevent a human being from trialing DMT, a substance with massively positive life altering effects? We are being controlled. We are being held down.

"Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

Here's to the coming successor of SR.

BTC

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[CorvusCorax]

I see Silk Road's closure as a good thing. Silk Road was perhaps the one Tor site known to many people and it was known for two things: facilitating drug deals and using bitcoins to do it. This is how the two became inextricably linked in many people's view just as people were starting to hear about bitcoin. Sure, there will be another site to take Silk Road's place, if there isn't one already up and running, but to be rid of the most obvious such site can only help to improve bitcoin's image.

[justusranvier]

Bad because of the people who lost bitcoins.

Good because the next generation of successor sites will be even more resilient.

In the long term the seizure serves as a form of innovation stimulus.

[LilGhost]

I see it as being a good thing. The silk road was casting a bad light on those of us who mine/trade/use bitcoins and do not have any interest in using services like the silk road or performing/purchasing illicit activities/items with bitcoins. Because of this, I view the silk road being closed as a good thing.

[cassieheart]

Very Very negative. The community will lose a great number of users if no one steps into fill the gap. BitCoin is all about Anarchy, Freedom and anonymity. I can't believe people in the Bitcoin community are saying this is a positive thing. I think Obama libtards have finally infiltrated the community. Sad sad day this is

[justusranvier]

Very Very negative.

In the long term, was the closure of Napster good or bad for P2P file sharing?

[MineForeman.com]

BitCoin is all about Anarchy, Freedom and anonymity.

To you perhaps it is, perhaps you should have appended that with "In my opinion".

In my opinion the "sex, drugs and scams" hurts bitcoin becoming a globally acknowledged legitimate form of trade and that is what I want.

Neil

[Nancarrow]

I voted positive. For one thing, it makes bitcoin more 'respectable' in the eyes of Joe "I'm sure I'd never touch drugs" Public. For another thing, it's actually good in the long term for the black market in drugs. Other sites will mushroom up (probably they already have done), with a bit of luck there'll be several, not just one, and hopefully the people running them will be smarter than DPR, more careful in their online habits, less willing to trumpet their achievements and goad the powers that be.

Aaaaand I do now realise I've signed up to this forum with my email address derived from my real name, no less.  Oh well, it's still not illegal (yet) to state one's opposition to the WoD, and moral support of those who wish to undermine it. So yeah, NSA, DEA, GCHQ and NCA, I hate you guys, blow me.

[smoothie]

Positive. Now all the myths of SR being the backbone of BTC are now debunked.

[locksley]

Definitely negative.

I'd say SR was a net-positive to society. It brought transparency to the drug-market place, which meant safer drug use.

In the coming months, I'd say that we'll also see how futile Drug Law Enforcement really is.

The market is wide open. You've got merchants who need to move product, and users who want the convenience of an online market place. Only matter a time before another entrepreneur fills this gap.

Best part of all is that the criminal complaint is in public domain[1], which means no one's going to make DPR's mistakes again.

I've already seen people talk about a 'distributed approach' rather than a centralized marketplace like SilkRoad (which is really built off the eBay model). Perhaps an "Anonymous Shopify" model will work, whereby any merchant can set up a shop and host it themselves with ease. Much harder to take down.


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[1] www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/~nweaver/UlbrichtCriminalComplaint.pdf

[aceking]

is positive in the long run

[superresistant]

It is a huge advertising for bitcoin. Positive in the mid and long run.

[cassieheart]

Its not an opinion its a fact. Bitcoin is Freedom ,Anonymity and Anarchy! Let me define Anarchy for you so you can understand. Anarchy:a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.Now lets move on. How exactly does Sex hurt Bitcoin, are you kidding me ? I can see maybe drugs and scams hurt its over all image to Bible thumpers and Libtards who like to control people but sex? let me ask you how you came to be created?  

BitCoin is all about Anarchy, Freedom and anonymity.

To you perhaps it is, perhaps you should have appended that with "In my opinion".

In my opinion the "sex, drugs and scams" hurts bitcoin becoming a globally acknowledged legitimate form of trade and that is what I want.

Neil

[matt608]

Its not an opinion its a fact. Bitcoin is Freedom ,Anonymity and Anarchy! Let me define Anarchy for you so you can understand. Anarchy:a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.Now lets move on. How exactly does Sex hurt Bitcoin, are you kidding me ? I can see maybe drugs and scams hurt its over all image to Bible thumpers and Libtards who like to control people but sex? let me ask you how you came to be created?  

No ones saying silk roads permanent closure is good for bitcoin, for all we know it could come back online and even if it doesn't there are other similar marketplaces that will grow to replace it but this 'closure event' has clearly been good for bitcoin.  The price has survived and theres been a ton of publicity.  It's probably the single biggest publicity boost bitcoin has ever received.

[Birdy]

Positive in the long term.

Its not an opinion its a fact. Bitcoin is Freedom ,Anonymity and Anarchy! Let me define Anarchy for you so you can understand. Anarchy:a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.

Abscence of authority? yes, indeed. But a state of disorder? No way.
It's no chaos, the order is managed by maths (and partly by common consent) instead of an authority.

[kmtan]

i never been there before....but if doing thing bad, it should be shutdown ..

[darkmule]

BTC

Looking to get a feel for the communty's perception on this one as it seems many people are divided.

I see the prosecution of people who take out, or even try to take out hits on their "business" rivals and enemies (even when those are scum themselves) as a good thing.  So if DPR is guilty of trying to do that, I see his prosecution as generally a good thing.

As for the short-term, it's a PR black eye for Bitcoin to be associated with these kinds of shenanigans, although just like cash, people will always do illegal things with it. . .and automobiles, and cell phones, and computers, and all sorts of things that are otherwise good.

In the long term, who cares?  It's not going to have much of an impact.  I predict that the successful model for an Internet black market is closer to BitTorrent than Napster, and SR was the Napster of such enterprises.  Way out of line, way illegal, and way prosecutable.  Plus you had a dude at the top who took out $80 million as his cut of the illegal business.  Hard for him to portray himself as some kind of white knight.

Done at a peer to peer level, there is no "Dread Pirate Roberts" to bust, and everyone takes responsibility for their own actions.

[btcton]

Very Very negative. The community will lose a great number of users if no one steps into fill the gap. BitCoin is all about Anarchy, Freedom and anonymity. I can't believe people in the Bitcoin community are saying this is a positive thing. I think Obama libtards have finally infiltrated the community. Sad sad day this is

You're implying everyone who uses bitcoin is a drug addict, which I'm pretty sure is not true.

[hulk]

Good in the long run, but for now its very negative as how the news relate bitcoin to drugs.

[alpha492]

As with just about everything in life its not all good, or all bad.  I've heard the different perspectives, and I agree that public perception of bitcoin will be improved with the downfall of SR.  It's undeniable however that SR contributed in a huge way to the value of bitcoin just because the market didn't recognize this within a week of SR going down doesn't mean it won't.  I've read that as much as 75% of btc transactions were related to the SR, from a classical economics perspective that would make SR more than the backbone of btc that would make it the circulatory system.  But on the other hand, the fall of the silk road gave btc a lot of attention and as mentioned before improved public perception.  If new vendors accepting bitcoin keep cropping up with a little luck that 75% void will be filled in with a thriving marketplace.  If btc is a little less lucky a SR clone will pop up by the end of the week accepting some kind of scrypt currency and bitcoin will inevitably collapse before the replacement marketplace ever comes to fruition.

Honestly if I had the balls to run a website like SR, I'd dump all my money into something like worldcoin make a clone that only accepts worldcoin, and be rich overnight.

IMO, now is a good time to diversify.