It is decentralized, but the main market will be moderated. The reasons for that should be obvious. The legal market is so much bigger in the long run than any black markets, that it doesn't make any sense to become known as the next silkroad. That would create a very serious pr problem when promoting the market to ordinary people. Also, David does not want to be associated with crime. The team totally agrees with him on that.
The private markets in Bay can not be moderated unless a mod knows the exact name of the market. So in theory a black market could evolve there. But if the name of the market becomes common knowledge, a mod could hear about it, and close it down.
I understand this but what if you were buying something that was not obviously wrong and it was moderated out and closed. What will happen to my funds as they buyer or seller?
Isn't the fact there is any moderation possible kind of leaving it open to legal issue. If there was no central control and everything was decentralised would that not be better than having a single entity moderating?
I think it is more risky for david being a moderator isn;t it?
I mean if you can moderate then you are responsible for allowing things to be there?
If no moderation is possible but there is no anon the authorities will have to police it according to their own countries rules.
I mean if you create a decentralised market place then how would you ever be able to moderate it all all or is there a special provision for this that I don't understand?
Will there be incentive for moderators. How many moderators will there be? Or is it a case of reported bad stuff is removed?
We can't stop private escrow. Only listings. If a buyer and seller are in escrow they control their funds, banning a user cannot ban them from contracts, only posting illegal things in the main market. Contracts cannot be interfered with, its impossible because its peer to peer.
Also things that are illegal in one country but not another are probably going to be allowed. So if a person sells Hemp or Raw Milk which is illegal in USA but legal in South America, then they are responsible for their own order. We won't moderate Mein Kampf for example.
However if someone offering out something like a hitman contract obviously that has to be removed.
I'm pretty sure thats a fair moderation policy for the main markets.
Also, I'm not responsible for the contents of the markets. This project is open source. If someone thinks I'm responsible I will gladly give them the moderation key they can then accept the responsibility. I'm not interested in babysitting the markets. It is impossible to "control the entire internet". That is a fruitless way to spend my time. How can you moderate what you can't see? If someone encrypts porn to the Bitcoin blockchain is everyone in the world committing a crime by downloading it?
Each country is going to police their citizens and generally try to rob them of as much freedom as possible before they realize it(so they have the illusion of freedom). However, these markets are obviously international. BitBay was started in China by Steven Dai. So is America
going to interfere because the dev is american?? That doesn't make sense. I don't even get paid in USD. Heck I don't even get paid.
Thats the same as throwing Satoshi in jail for making Bitcoin (even though Satoshi is just a pseudonym for a large group). It might happen but it is a violation of all that is good in the world a price I would gladly pay. If it really boils down to that. The creator of reddit unfortunately met a similar fare. Sadly he took his own life before the "stupidest trial in the world" took place. It happens. A life lost in pursuit of all that is good. Source:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/12/us/new-york-reddit-founder-suicide/So it is what it is. We will do the best we can to moderate what we see, I'm not legally responsible for it but we do it out of goodwill. We want the masses to take an interest in their own freedom and start looking at distributed networks and decentralized markets. For their own benefit. Its a much, much larger picture.
