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

[vpitcher07]

For worldwide adoption, very positive. For liberty and freedom, very negative. Bitcoin can't be viewed as the currency "to buy drugs with" even if it's not anymore true than fiat currency if you're expecting world wide adoption.

[darkmule]

Silk Road is a market place of freedom and showed just how viably society can function without some dictating body in place.

With liberty and hitmen for all who piss me off!

How dare dat eebil gummint tell me I can't administer a harmless dose of lead to whoever gets in the way of my profits?

[darkmule]

The initial aggressor is the group which outlaws mutual voluntary trade of various goods in order to line their own pockets. Everything following that initial aggression is cause and effect.

So if I somehow pissed off DPR and he had me murdered, that wouldn't be his fault.  It would be the fault of some random other guy.  Okay.  Got it.

[lucasjkr]

Question:

I know there were tumblers for moving money in and out of sr, but what about transactions within sr? Did they occur on the block chain? Or was it done by recording transfers internally until such point as a withdrawal request could be made?

If it's the first, I could imagine a detrimental impact on bitcoin, in that a sizable number of transactions are not going to be occurring any longer, and all those transactions aided in price discovery.
That can easily be made up for with more transactions elsewhere in the block chain, but it seems like dpr might have been the single largest owner of bitcoins and silkroad might have dwarfed every other site but mtgox interms of how many transactions were occurring on the block chain. Certainly that'll cause some form of impact ?

I mean, some might say that dpr's large stash can be discounted out if the market cap, considered "lost ". But we can't do that because who knows, maybe someone else has control of them already? Or maybe after trials over, he'll be able to relay a method of access so that someone can retrieve them.

[mises]

600k BTC? That's like a real life Heisenberg

[desired_username]

I find it positive because many more sites will appear. In the end even the last idiot will acknowledge that "war on drugs" is idiotic and highly illogical and all substances will be decriminalized.

When we look back, there will be a line that bitcoin helped to achieve this and ultimately better our civilization.

Do not forget that the governments create black trade and probably they profit from it the best. This profit could go to better the lives of the very people governments INTENDED to serve.

[illpoet]

i find it to be a positive thing because it did show that bitcoin doesn't need silk road to be valuable. it also shows that the fbi can shut down one site and stop very little.  the most positive thing in my opinion tho is i have some new entertainment looking at blockchain.info

[redtwitz]

Definitely not negative.

The people I've talked to about Bitcoins fit in two categories:

1. Those that never heard of Bitcoins.
2. Those that knew Bitcoins could be used to purchase drugs.

Bitcoins mean something else for every person. For anarchists, criminals and drug users, it means an anonymous (or at least pseudonymous) way of making purchases. For others (me included), it means a way to store and spend money that doesn't depend on the good will of governments, banks and services like PayPal (which just decided that I can't use my account to make eBay purchases, since I don't live in the same country as my shipping address).

So, if Silk Road's closure will have an impact depends on whether it gets replaced by a similar market. If it does, the will be no long-term impact. If it doesn't, it will be positive.

[TheButterZone]

lulz...

So why is the Bitcoin price up by $20 then?

Depends on when/where your goalpost is set.

At MtGox the day before the SR shutdown, the price was hovering just over $140 USD. The day of the shutdown, IIRC it dropped to around $110.

Today's USD low is $135.12, high $139.

"Up by $20", to me, would mean the price is just over $160 USD.

[cryptoanarchist]

No matter what side of casual drug use you fall on, Silk Roads closure was good for the public's perception of Bitcoin. Public interest has also increased.

http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=Bitcoin#q=%22silk%20road%22%2C%20Bitcoin&cmpt=q

I can only roll my eyes at people who speak of "public perception". Not only are they worried about something that doesn't matter, they really don't know what the masses think anyway.

OK, but bitcoin was being tarred with that SR brush by those in the media who, for what ever reason had taken it on themselves to portray btc in that light and I think we can agree, or I would certainly hope, that public perception is very much influenced by media, particularly the lobotomising mainstream media.

That SR has been removed from the equation means that over time, the slur that was being used against btc as a legitimate currency will look increasingly ridiculous for those deriding btc in such a way. Obviously that doesn't mean btc can no longer be used to facilitate criminal exchange any less than filthy corrupt fiat can be also, but it's good that a lazy SR association used against btc has been removed in my opinion.

Again..caring about how the lamestream media portrays something is downright stupid. Especially something that threatens the powers that be like bitcoin does. I would be more worried if the media DIDN'T portray bitcoin in a bad light.

[galbros]

I voted negative but am impressed with how the BTC price has held up.  While I agree silk road linked BTC to drugs it was clearly a popular spot and did decent volume of BTC transactions.  IF second generation sites come to replace it then maybe not a big deal, but clearly not good.

[BitChick]

I would think highly positive.  As a person who was very hesitant to buy any BTC early on because of the concern of it being connected to nefarious purposes, this is great.  I am quite relieved, honestly.

And the fact that the price has remained relatively stable in spite of it?  I would have never guessed that could even happen.  So far it is a great thing.

[darkmule]

I think it's good in the same sense Napster going down was good.  It clears the way for a less vulnerable architecture.  While I do not approve of what DPR did, I do in general approve of anonymous marketplaces, whether or not they are used for illegal as well as legal purposes.

[bernard75]

Too lazy to write:
http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/how-the-silk-road-shutdown-makes-everyone-less-safe

[LiteCoinGuy]

Too lazy to write:

Beware turning drug dealers into folk heroes

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/hugorifkind/article3889234.ece

a hero is snowden (or maybe satoshi) but no drug-dealer.

[darkmule]

Too lazy to write:

Beware turning drug dealers into folk heroes

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/hugorifkind/article3889234.ece

a hero is snowden (or maybe satoshi) but no drug-dealer.

Article hidden behind bullshit paywall.

[Carlton Banks]

Positive:

1. Parents can breathe easy now that their kids can't get LSD posted to them from Amsterdam. Drug prohibition used to have a mechanistic benefit there, as most drug dealers know little kids have to be initiated into the "keep mouth shut" culture before they'll risk selling higher scheduled drugs to them.

2. High profile "drug market busted" puts the emphasis on Russ Ulbrect and not our beloved Bitcoin.

3. Price dive was reactionary, small and inconsequential.


Neutral:

At least two new sites are already taking Silk Roads place. Kind of overrides positive no. 1.


Negative:

No negatives from any perspective, seemingly. If you want to buy drugs online, you still can. If you wanted to brush off the stink of the underworld, you now can.

[bernard75]

1. Parents can breathe easy now that their kids can't get LSD posted to them from Amsterdam. Drug prohibition used to have a mechanistic benefit there, as most drug dealers know little kids have to be initiated into the "keep mouth shut" culture before they'll risk selling higher scheduled drugs to them.

Yes Carlton, everybody who ever used drugs are innocent children, who are indoctrinated to use Heroin and Crack. Law enforcement, the saviors of the world, should also crack down on any means of preserving privacy, because its just drug dealers and pedobears out there.

[dadach]

is this question for real? dumbest question ever...

[ronimacarroni]

Bitcoins becoming a regular currency is more important than drugs.
So I voted positive.