The way US government can crack down Silk Road, Tor and Bitcoin

[Gabi]

1. Silk Road sells guns.
2. Guns could be used by terrorists.
3. Use that as an excuse to apply NDAA and detain random Bitcoin and Tor users.
4. Profit!

EDIT: To elaborate second point: a government agency would be only required to present some evidence that a gun sold by Silk Road ended up in hands of a terrorist.

Actually, for USA government, drugs are much worse than guns. Guns are fine in USA, am i right? With the emendment thing

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[TTBit]

Silk Road doesn't sell drugs or guns.

[MysteryMiner]

I did not see any weapon on SR that can be really useful to terrorist. Most terrorists already have easy and cheap access to wide assortment to assault rifles. Don't know how useful they will find overpriced Glock or Beretta in US-specific calibers.

OK, go for it, try destroy Tor, Bitcoin. Be sure to destroy the copy of Bitcoin and Tor source code located on my PC and thousands of another user's PC.

[Gabi]

If you want weapons in USA you just go in a shop and buy whatever you want...

[slush]

If you want weapons in USA you just go in a shop and buy whatever you want...

Then the question is: who needs overpriced guns from SR when normal people can buy guns in the US freely?

[illpoet]

right now i think we're in a gray zone with the us govt.  I think they are hoping we just go away/self destruct.   if they started cracking down on silkroad/bitcoin users they would validate bitcoin as a viable currency and silk road as an easy way to score drugs and guns . Not to mention all the free press bitcoin and silkroad would get.  now if more ppl start using silkroad/bitcoin  that will probably change.   I definately agree that there are probably feds with accounts on silkroad, mostly to gather information.  I mean i'd love to believe that the united states would be above selling guns to random ppl for information/political gain but em, fast and furious comes to mind. So the probability that there is a seller with good feedback out there making a list of buyers for uncle sam is very high imo.  

[Gabi]

If you want weapons in USA you just go in a shop and buy whatever you want...

Then the question is: who needs overpriced guns from SR when normal people can buy guns in the US freely?

It's for ppl not in the US i suppose.

[BadBear]

If you want weapons in USA you just go in a shop and buy whatever you want...

Then the question is: who needs overpriced guns from SR when normal people can buy guns in the US freely?

Felons and people who don't want paper trails. 

If you want weapons in USA you just go in a shop and buy whatever you want...

Yep, we got that part right at least.

[rjk]

If you want weapons in USA you just go in a shop and buy whatever you want...

Then the question is: who needs overpriced guns from SR when normal people can buy guns in the US freely?

According to an article (gizmodo?) that quoted one of the SR sellers "Dbush", most of his sales were to European customers outside the USA.

[predic]

cocaine is criminalized in USA because slaves stood up for their rights under influence of cocaine, therefore they created the law against cocaine. before it, cocaine was given by doctor as medicament and even widely used by society. when they criminalized it, crowd of people finished in the prison, they became cheap labor for private companies which make contracts with prisons.

so, how can gov destroy btc, tor and silkroad?
they can scare people with blabla in all medias against any anonymous currency which allow to the people anonymous transactions and savings (to avoid taxes).
they don't need to make new law, they can just use present law about transactions, savings and taxes and they can begin to hunt people. the same like in the case of megaupload, one arrested will not stop piracy but others will become afraid and police produce damage in any case, so, they are happy, even they didn't stop all piracy sites. police just act as politicians say them to do, so, some chiefs of cops will get promotion and better paid job. in order to get promotion, someone must finish in the prison. they don't care who and how many.
tor is used by military and its intelligence, I don't think anyone will destroy tor network.
silkroad can be destroyed by FBI hackers, they can attack server where is located silkroad, they can make it very slow or even blocked, they can spam it, troll it, destroy reputation and so on. that's standard tactic of FBI against any political opponent (Black Panthers, Martin Luther King, etc). so, there is nothing new to do, all things are already done in the past against some other enemies of FBI, you just need to read about it and you will recognize their tactics. FBI don't care for the law, when they decide to attack, they will use any tool to destroy what they want to destroy.

[ctoon6]

i just now realized that i need to start stock piling semi automatic weapons and munitions... never know who will show up at your door...

[btc_artist]

What makes you think so? I do think governments, especially the US government, are not rational in their decisions, but they aren't completely stupid as well. There is only one senator who caught some attention about this subject, but as far as we can see nothing has changed but SR being more well-known. I do think allowing guns to be sold is a bad way to go for SR, I hope they reconsider changing back to their former policy.

Why are guns worse than drugs in your opinion?

In my opinion, guns are more important to maintaining a free society than any other tool available except knowledge/information. If you are speaking with someone that only knows the language of violence, you have but one chance of getting your point across, violence. And I'm referring to self defense from aggression, in which case violence is a priceless tool. I don't know if the people who would purchase guns on the SR are aggressive thugs or just people exercising their rights without needing to jump through the hoops required by governments worldwide.

I'm not really sure how drugs benefit society, maybe blowing off steam? Not that I have a problem with people who want to take drugs. But to suggest that drugs are cool, but guns are bad is silly. In my opinion.

Very well said, Holliday.

[boconniff40]

If SR, TOR, or BITCOIN ever stop working anonymously that is the end for those services...

[ctoon6]

I concur, violence gets shit/ stuff done.

[boconniff40]

pretty sure it's still part of SR

[chsados]

pretty sure it's still part of SR

nope its different servers and everything. 

[zer0]

They will probably attempt to infiltrate SR/Armoury like the feds have done countless other underground markets. SR was even hiring publically a while back for database people, and if you've ever read up on previous stings like Darkmarket you know all about how they became admins there and took it down. That said there are no bulk transactions really on SR so why bother when they are already swamped with Mexican cartel madness.. elite ex soldiers trafficking by the kilo in every US city and hidden cells of assassins is probably a higher priority than a few grams in the mail

If I was tasked with the job of taking down the Armoury the first thing I would do is fill it with bogus listings and ship RFID tracked packages and pick up the buyers, spreading uncertainty in the market so nobody trusts it. To get at old sellers order their stuff, and trace the serial numbers and match it up with their shipping locations to narrow it down.

Can also social engineer these guys.. claim your weapon has a problem and you want to exchange it or trade or anything to get the guy to agree to receive a shipment for you. Now wait for his runner to show up to collect it, threaten them with eleventy billion years in prison, they talk, you go pickup the gun runner. There are countless ways to infiltrate the armoury I'm sure they're all doing it right now.

Europe/Canada/UK freak over anonymous gun shipments and will no doubt pressure the US to help them crackdown on shippers.... which really doesn't make sense since the worst Euro terrorist Anders Breivik bought all his weapons legally anyways (after failing to buy them illegally in Eastern europe)

[boconniff40]

lmao why would darkmarket let others be admins, what a gay place

[zer0]

lmao why would darkmarket let others be admins, what a gay place

http://www.hahgay.com

Because the guy who ran cardersmarket was pwning their server left and right, so FBI undercover offered to 'help with security'.. this builds trust.. then dude made him co-admin and it's all downhill from there

However that was secret service/FBI.. DEA probably isn't that competent to takeover SR

[ctoon6]

If i were selling guns, id dead drop them ahead of time, then when the sale went through, just tell them where the gun is. drugs could work this way as well. Although i can not think of anything similar for people buying stuff.