What role did drugs play in the ascendency of Bitcoin?

[toomuch]

Greetings all, Bitcoin is something that passed through my life with the permanence of snowflake in an inferno but it has recently piqued my curiosity and hence I wash up here, on your digital shores with a question:

What role did drugs play in the ascendency of Bitcoin?

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine about money and how it facilitates trade along with the history of currency and how it must have been a logistical nightmare in its early days.

He bought up the topic of Bitcoin and how its success was tied directly to drugs as a) Bitcoin was the only method of payment these digital dealers accepted b) It gave all parties involved a cybercool ego boost and c) it created the niche market opening that allowed further penetration into regular sectors.

Bottom line, his argument was that had it not been for Silk Road and its ilk that Bitcoin would have came and gone with nary a ruffle of the morning paper and how the illegal trade was responsible for the vast majority of its success and future proliferation.

Is he right?

As I said, I know naught about this cryptocurrency but the conversation did really make me want to find out more. Is this common knowledge? Is my friend arguing from authority or is this really how it has gone? Is it possible to see a graph which shows trading volume spikes/drops when the illegal sites have been shutdown/reopened?

Thanks



tl/dr - Bitcoin history - digital drug dealing = no Bitcoin as we know it. True or false?

[dbbit]

tl/dr - Bitcoin history - digital drug dealing = no Bitcoin as we know it. True or false?

Does it matter?

The porn industry initially caused VHS to win over Betamax, accelerated DVD deployment and was the driving force behind the initial growth of the internet.

Does that mean porn is still the major driving force behind all the information technology in the world? Of course not. It was just first.


Bitcoin solved a transaction & trust problem that is highly important to drug deals, but is useful to anybody else as well.

VISA and banks have tried to make payment systems for legitimate transactions that are barely tolerable, with various fraud protections and chargeback mechanisms etc, but the fact remains is that a payment system that is based on having to trust the payee is inferior and outdated.

So you couldn't trust a drug dealer with a credit card number. Well... turns out you can't trust Target with it either. Bitcoin solves it for both.

[HorseCoin]

bitcoin was made because of drugs (and prostitution), so yeah

[hilariousandco]

Bitcoin had a massive rise because of its use and association with drug activity, but new technology is very often exploited or taken advantage of by criminals first. I think Bitcoin would've been slower to adopt without it's use by drug marketplaces. It got a lot of free exposure from the media coverage of Silk road etc.

[BCEmporium]

You have your answer when Silk Road was shut down. Bitcoin went down a bit but quickly recover it.
So the answer is: little to nothing.

[davidpbrown]

If drugs+ played a role, then perhaps it was in helping to prove the technology worked well. Notoriety always raises profile and I expect helped engage the main stream press - they do seem to like sensation and scandal. I'd suggest crime has become a minority interest already; and certainly once the bigger potential of cryptocurrencies for trade becomes obvious, its cloudy history will fade.

[trilightzone.org]

How about we talk about CASH ? What role did it play in drugs and still does ? <cough>

[whtchocla7e]

The same role they will play in bringing Bitcoin down.

[Gabi]

Let's consider colorado

[minime]

what kind of drugs does your friend do??? lol
the bitcoin was misused by people who somehow had the opinion that the bitcoin was anonymous, in fact it is the opposite.
like one poster wrote earlier, new stuff gets abused until it is dead or regulated by governments.
But i my view btc will be good for some future surprises.
just my 2 cents

[TheButterZone]

Pretty sure at least one study was done and it found drugs accounted for a single-digit percentage of bitcoin expenditures.

[LostDutchman]

bitcoin was made because of drugs (and prostitution), so yeah

Are you suggesting that Bitcoin was created to promote and facilitate the use of hookers and blow?

My $.02.

[waldox]

the sale of drugs helped boot the startup of bitcoin when there were limited ways to spend bitcoin,
drugs were a large percentage of transactions with high friction in real life
now bitcoin is flying high, drugs are not really relavant, there are many cool ways to spend bitcoins

[TTBit]

I have been around a bit and would say the ascendancy was due to spongebob stickers, alpaca socks and papa johns pizza. Call me a dork, but the novelty of transacting in something other than USD was liberating. Silk road was a bump in the (errrr...ummm) road for bitcoin.

[hellscabane]

I'd say it did, in a similar fashion that pornography bolstered the digital camera industry.

Honestly, nothing tests a technology than a particular set of people with steadfast demands.

[roslinpl]

bitcoin was made because of drugs (and prostitution), so yeah

Are you suggesting that Bitcoin was created to promote and facilitate the use of hookers and blow?

My $.02.

Satoshi Nakamoto was for sure a drug dealer and a pimp

[LostDutchman]

bitcoin was made because of drugs (and prostitution), so yeah

Are you suggesting that Bitcoin was created to promote and facilitate the use of hookers and blow?

My $.02.

Satoshi Nakamoto was for sure a drug dealer and a pimp

Ya think?



Citation please!

[erik777]

Are you suggesting that newegg and overstock were on drugs when they began to accept bitcoin?  

The beginning of eCommerce on the internet was porn and gambling.  But, obviously, the internet was and continues to be so much more today.  

Innovation can be highest in illegal areas because the restrictions we put on them forces them to become innovative in order to survive.  So, naturally, they are the first to use new technologies.  But, to suggest that the Internet would never have become popular if porn and gambling didn't exist is ridiculous.  Ditto for bitcoins.  

[LostDutchman]

The US Dollar; the most frequently used currency in drug transactions does not "go down" every time there is a drug bust.

Could we please get over this bogus BTC/Drug connection and move on to something profitable?

My $.02.

[RGBKey]

Personally, I believe that SR helped get bitcoin out there, it's what got more people using it and also helped spread the word. But by the time that SR went down in flames, Bitcoin had already gotten off of it's dependency on SR and could stand on it's own two legs.