18 ms·

A Primer on DarkNet Marketplaces

169 points by huntermeyer 10y ago

kilroy123 10y ago
I know people really buy drugs on these markets. Are people really able to buy weapons so easily?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- rangibaby 10y ago
  If it were difficult the US govt wouldn't be able to give weapons to friendly rebels around the world. Same with drugs, they are an easy source of income that doesn't need to be accounted for.
- dublinben 10y ago
  There's very little reason to buy weapons through an underground market like this. Most can be openly purchased in large parts of the country.
- asddddd 10y ago
  A recent and high profile example is the Munich shooting from this summer: https://www.deepdotweb.com/2016/08/25/german-dnm-vendor-arrested-selling-glock-munich-shooter/ https://www.deepdotweb.com/2016/08/25/german-dnm-vendor-arre...
enneff 10y ago
There's not really any information in this article, unfortunately. I know the FBI don't want to tip their hand, but I am genuinely curious to know more details about how they are investigating crimes online.
atom_enger 10y ago
You'd think someone in the chain of command would say, "what would this look like as a legal market? How much could we generate in taxes? Do these people really belong behind bars?" A few questions I have: * How many schools and hospitals could we fund from taxes? * Could we redirect these users to hospitals or treatment facilities, and if we can't, so what? * Could these agents be considered adrenaline junkies? This cat and mouse game will have no end until they can tap into your brain stem and prevent you from committing these 'crimes' or modify your brain chemistry in a way that will make you not yearn for altering your conciousness. Either way, that's not a world I want to live in. How can we get the government to respect our right to put anything in our body that we want to? As long as it does not hurt others through the production or the consumption or harm the environment, I really don't understand the moral hard on people get from telling a group of people what they can and can't do. I'm kind of rambling, but this is what comes to mind when I see these types of articles.
- zepolen 10y ago
  Weapons in USA are a legal market, and there is some fallout as a result of that since guns will be more accessible to the wrong hands.
  - atom_enger 10y ago
    Sorry if I wasn't clear, I'm talking about substance use and abuse.
    - zepolen 10y ago
      Ah, okay, the article referenced all categories of darknet markets.
  - leesalminen 10y ago
    I'm genuinely curious what your thoughts are on the argument that criminals will break the law and obtain firearms illegally, regardless of the law.
    - atom_enger 10y ago
      Yeah we solved that problem in Chicago </s>. We learned that criminals don't obey the law and the law abiding citizens have a difficult time obtaining the proper tools they need to protect themselves.
      - baby 10y ago
        When you have weapons in every city/states around you, and an already large amount of weapons sold, you will have a problem.
    - na85 10y ago
      And yet if you compare the US with the next umpteen countries combined, totalling the same number of people, gun deaths in the US are vastly more common. Do you think it's because Americans are more homicidal by nature? Or is it perhaps because Canada, England, Japan, et al have gun control laws?
throwatme 10y ago
(throw away). I am technical and recently tried Tor / AlphaBay for the first time to experiment and see what it would be like to buy MDMA online. I followed the excellent guide at https://getsafedrugs.org https://getsafedrugs.org, but ended up not purchasing. I have friends who have purchased successfully and surprising the entire process works.
- ggghjk7778 10y ago
  It "works" because the eyes that watch willing gloss over it because it is looking for something else. If everything in the priority queue before a schedule xxx drug get sorted out, which will n'r happen (lol), maybe then the eyes will be interested in these cases.
- keyboardhitter 10y ago
  Adding onto this, I prefer to research this kind of web content with a VPN or public internet that isn't associated with my ISP. Paranoid, sure. But the less personally identifying information involved in these transactions, the better.
mabcat 10y ago
I think the screenshot tells a much more accurate story than the text. 120,000 listings for drugs, 1,900 for weapons, no main category for child porn. Based on the listings, the kinds of activity that actually go on would seem to be in reverse order from what the press release suggests. I'm struggling to imagine anyone leaving feedback about how potent a poison was or chatting away about their last 'cache of guns'. I could be wrong.
- ramblenode 10y ago
  The items are purposefully listed in order of concern rather than volume. The FBI is also in the business of selling its utility to the public, and its pitch should be treated with as much skepticism.
  - elcct 10y ago
    > Some of these individuals confessed to ordering a range of illegal drugs and controlled substances online, including heroin, cocaine, morphine, and ketamine. And yet they don't do what they tell they care about. Such a waste...
- Nimitz14 10y ago
  It's fake. Weapons are rarely sold on marketplaces and when they are it's bait.
jstrieb 10y ago
This talks a lot about drugs and weapons, but it says nothing about what I've heard is one of the most commonly-purchased dark-net commodities: fake over-21 American licenses. It's ridiculously easy to buy a fake ID online and have it shipped right to your door, from basically any state you want---even high security states like California and New York---and for relatively cheap too. I suppose that might be because several fake ID vendors will only sell ones that show an age between 21 and 25 and only sell to people in the US to deter law enforcement based on the idea they're only selling to teens for alcohol as opposed to allowing people to be smuggled into the country or other such things. Though I have no personal experience with making purchases from darknet markets, I was curious about how easy it would actually be to get a fake ID after watching the movie Superbad. I was astounded at the wealth of information available to the benign Googler. For more interesting info: http://reddit.com/r/fakeid http://reddit.com/r/fakeid
- baby 10y ago
  This is interesting, needing a fake ID could be the gateway to get drugs as a young student in America. The common problem of getting alcohol when you're "under age" is leading you to learn how to get drugs online.
- improv32 10y ago
  These sites use bitcoin, but operate on the clear web (well they don't need tor anyway). See for example: http://scannablefakeids.com http://scannablefakeids.com looks fake but it is a real vendor
FELEG 10y ago
Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group (FELEG) Sometimes I wonder is Snowden was an orchestrated provocateur, tasked with dropping things in the open so that the operations that were big enough to be hindered by covert practices could now operate freely, in the open, and accelerate their programs. 15 or 20 years ago, an INTERPOL style coalition of this sort would have raised eyebrows. Snowden blew the lid open, and nothing changed. In fact things are taking shape faster, if (we know about them) at all.
tn13 10y ago
Wait till someone exposed that FBI itself is selling explosives, weapons and child porn on dark web. http://reason.com/blog/2016/08/31/the-fbi-distributes-child-pornography-to http://reason.com/blog/2016/08/31/the-fbi-distributes-child-...
- atom_enger 10y ago
  Don't know why you're being down voted. I thought it was well known that they actively commit/participate in crimes in order to entrap people.
baby 10y ago
Honestly Darknet marketplaces are doing a good thing for a lot of people. Think of all these people who would buy their drugs in the street instead. They would probably get the worst quality, and even damage themselves just to try something.
- GordonS 10y ago
  I agree. One of the biggest problem with illegal drugs is adulterants/fillers, and drugs not being quite what you thought they were. For example, a lot of drugs sold as MDMA contain amphetamine or worse [1] The reviews on DNMs don't eliminate this problem, but they certainly help. [1] https://www.ecstasydata.org https://www.ecstasydata.org
losvedir 10y ago
I must not understand how Tor works because it seems pretty trivial to me for the FBI or a government agency to identify users. Where's the error in my thinking: Tor works by routing a connection from your computer through a few hops in the network and then to the server. If the FBI operated the relay connected to your computer and also the server (say as a sting operation, or if they identified one and downloaded the logs), then wouldn't it be pretty easy to match the traffic through their relay (which has your naked IP address) to the traffic in the server logs?
- loeg 10y ago
  Part of Tor is making sure the FBI (or any other party) can't operate sufficient relays (3) to demask users.
- Estragon 10y ago
  It seems likely that the NSA is running a large fraction of tor nodes, and doing exactly what you suggest. It would cost a trivial fraction of their budget, and yield huge amounts of relevant information.
- allemagne 10y ago
  It doesn't even need to be infiltrating TOR. They caught a kid who called in a fake bomb threat to get out of a college test because his connection to the TOR network coincided with the threat. You could relay your traffic through one or more VPNs before connecting to the TOR network if you trust the companies not to keep logs or be beholden to the FBI/NSA. But realistically your only friend in a worst-case scenario is the fairly reasonable hope that these agencies don't have the ability to parse all of their raw data, that they wouldn't waste time looking for you, and that you're not important enough for them to show their hand to everyone else and reveal exactly what they're capable of.
- bcook 10y ago
  The traffic is encrypted from relay to relay and end to end. You can theoretically prove that someone used Tor and perhaps prove that they connected to a certain Hidden Service, but proving that they actually did something illegal (rather than just curiously browsing) is not easy to prove. Also, I think that each relay is unaware of their order in the flow, so the other connected nodes could be a Hidden Service, a Tor client, or just another relay.
micaksica 10y ago
As an infosec fan, I'm curious what "network investigative technique" (ie 0day) they used against these servers to pop them. Criminal complaints will tell what FVEY LE hath wrought.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
jyap 10y ago
Posting this story since people seem interested. The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 1 | WIRED https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/ https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/
qwertyuiop924 10y ago
There's something really disturbing about this. The FBI is cheerily talking about attacking "darknet infrastructure". In layman's terms, they're saying they want to wage war on TOR. It's kind of disturbing how pleased with themselves they are about it, though.
- cloudjacker 10y ago
  I know, its pretty weird
AlphaWeaver 10y ago
Though quite a long read, the feature WIRED did on the story of Silk Road [0] talks more in detail than this article about the FBI's infiltration and takedown of the site. Great read! [0]: https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/ https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/
reducesuffering 10y ago
Did the FBI really think it was a good idea to start with a huge picture of a "hacker" like that? Aren't they just romanticizing the DarkNet and possibly interesting new opponents?
jdironman 10y ago
As I posted further down in the comments: "I don't understand something. Why is a compromise not an option? Like safe spaces for such vices. State or city, or even privately owned venues with highly audited and regulated enviornments. Solid security, but also inviting enough to be an option for anyone. Revenue and taxes generated from them ofcourse benefits society, while also putting a damper on crime lords income that could possibly end up being used to fund worse activities such as human trafficking. Those who currently refuse to observe laws and still want that 'fix' have a legal option in a controlled enviornment. Reducing convictions to only those who do not utilize the safe space and put theirself and others at risk. They can cheaply and efficiently be monitored to know if they are well enough to be back in public. If not, sleep it off or have a verified driver pick them up. Consumption can be monitored possibly greatly reducing accidental overdoses. Increases availability which may lead to less 'its hard to get, I want it more' scenarios that strengthen addiction and habits. It may also help prevent people from getting in over their head by racking up debt with individuals who have no problem resorting to violence and sometimes also intentionally or unintentionaly hurting other innocent people. I truly cannot think of any 'Cons' to having such a system other than the possible general public's opinion that 'we have accepted defeat and decided to join them' pinning involved organizations and business as effectively drug dealers and just as bad. Let me summarize with an example: Gambling other than lottery is not permitted in my state as far as I know. If I want to gamble I have to hit the casinos 1-2 states over. Knowing I have such an exquisite option available if I decide to do so allows me to appreciate that. I've never stepped foot inside a casino, nor done any type of serious gambling, but if I ever did I would like for it to be in a nice, fair, and engaging enviornment like those available. Just as if I decided to take a trip on shrooms, or hit a line of cocaine just for the experience with friends. I'd rather be in a place that I can relax and know everyone involved is exponentially safer than doing so in the neighborhood crack house. I would love to hear others thoughts."
- kefka 10y ago
  Mainly from the US perspective, "It's an affront to God to allow such debauchery, so no one is allowed to, except for those dirty natives, that we had to allow because of the Constitution." I blame Christians, and their previous roots from the Puritans. I've seen enough other Christian-majority things shoved through as laws - it's no long stretch. And I come from the state that thinks, and funded, "electrocution to fix gayness". That was one of Mike Pence's doings in our state.
Steeeve 10y ago
I thought they did a decent job of explaining it, but by publicly exposing it in a high profile case (Silk Road) they did themselves a disservice. The fact that it's referenced regularly in primetime TV means that thousands of people who never would have heard of it now check it out - increasing darknet sales well beyond what they would have been otherwise.
syngrog66 10y ago
don't think I'll visit an FBI page on that topic. talk about the honeypot potential. esp given the potentials of a Pres Trump.
LeoPanthera 10y ago
> Payment for these goods and services is usually through virtual currency like bitcoin, also designed to be anonymous. Bitcoin is not, and was not designed to be, anonymous.
- delcaran 10y ago
  Actually, bitcoin is anonymous: no information links an account to his owner. However it's true that the owner of a specific account could be guessed with a good amount of precision going through all transactions history and pairing the data with those of bitcoin exchanges.
  - juliangoldsmith 10y ago
    That's not anonymous, that's pseudonymous. You still have a name (an address), it just isn't your real name.
libeclipse 10y ago
> Payment for these goods and services is usually through virtual currency like bitcoin, also designed to be anonymous. Not true. Bitcoin is pseudonymous at best.
SSLy 10y ago
We're sorry... The request has been blocked. Anyone got a mirror?
id122015 10y ago
A man is a wolf for his fellow men. Ancient quote. Now do something "good" and save all those bastard children because, we were taught we are different and not animals. Law is a hipocrisy. Disrupt banking and national bank monopoly, dont run after bank fraudsters. Teach people to treat other people like humans, and disrupt the sex and mental health industries. Always resolve the root cause. But be aware, if all people were saints the pope would go bankrupt, so know who the pope is and be prepared to fight him.

169 points by huntermeyer 10y ago

kilroy123 10y ago

I know people really buy drugs on these markets. Are people really able to buy weapons so easily?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
rangibaby 10y ago
If it were difficult the US govt wouldn't be able to give weapons to friendly rebels around the world. Same with drugs, they are an easy source of income that doesn't need to be accounted for.
dublinben 10y ago
There's very little reason to buy weapons through an underground market like this. Most can be openly purchased in large parts of the country.
asddddd 10y ago
A recent and high profile example is the Munich shooting from this summer: https://www.deepdotweb.com/2016/08/25/german-dnm-vendor-arrested-selling-glock-munich-shooter/ https://www.deepdotweb.com/2016/08/25/german-dnm-vendor-arre...

enneff 10y ago

There's not really any information in this article, unfortunately. I know the FBI don't want to tip their hand, but I am genuinely curious to know more details about how they are investigating crimes online.

atom_enger 10y ago

You'd think someone in the chain of command would say, "what would this look like as a legal market? How much could we generate in taxes? Do these people really belong behind bars?" A few questions I have: * How many schools and hospitals could we fund from taxes? * Could we redirect these users to hospitals or treatment facilities, and if we can't, so what? * Could these agents be considered adrenaline junkies? This cat and mouse game will have no end until they can tap into your brain stem and prevent you from committing these 'crimes' or modify your brain chemistry in a way that will make you not yearn for altering your conciousness. Either way, that's not a world I want to live in. How can we get the government to respect our right to put anything in our body that we want to? As long as it does not hurt others through the production or the consumption or harm the environment, I really don't understand the moral hard on people get from telling a group of people what they can and can't do. I'm kind of rambling, but this is what comes to mind when I see these types of articles.

zepolen 10y ago
Weapons in USA are a legal market, and there is some fallout as a result of that since guns will be more accessible to the wrong hands.
- atom_enger 10y ago
  Sorry if I wasn't clear, I'm talking about substance use and abuse.
  - zepolen 10y ago
    Ah, okay, the article referenced all categories of darknet markets.
- leesalminen 10y ago
  I'm genuinely curious what your thoughts are on the argument that criminals will break the law and obtain firearms illegally, regardless of the law.
  - atom_enger 10y ago
    Yeah we solved that problem in Chicago </s>. We learned that criminals don't obey the law and the law abiding citizens have a difficult time obtaining the proper tools they need to protect themselves.
    - baby 10y ago
      When you have weapons in every city/states around you, and an already large amount of weapons sold, you will have a problem.
  - na85 10y ago
    And yet if you compare the US with the next umpteen countries combined, totalling the same number of people, gun deaths in the US are vastly more common. Do you think it's because Americans are more homicidal by nature? Or is it perhaps because Canada, England, Japan, et al have gun control laws?

throwatme 10y ago

(throw away). I am technical and recently tried Tor / AlphaBay for the first time to experiment and see what it would be like to buy MDMA online. I followed the excellent guide at https://getsafedrugs.org https://getsafedrugs.org, but ended up not purchasing. I have friends who have purchased successfully and surprising the entire process works.

ggghjk7778 10y ago
It "works" because the eyes that watch willing gloss over it because it is looking for something else. If everything in the priority queue before a schedule xxx drug get sorted out, which will n'r happen (lol), maybe then the eyes will be interested in these cases.
keyboardhitter 10y ago
Adding onto this, I prefer to research this kind of web content with a VPN or public internet that isn't associated with my ISP. Paranoid, sure. But the less personally identifying information involved in these transactions, the better.

mabcat 10y ago

I think the screenshot tells a much more accurate story than the text. 120,000 listings for drugs, 1,900 for weapons, no main category for child porn. Based on the listings, the kinds of activity that actually go on would seem to be in reverse order from what the press release suggests. I'm struggling to imagine anyone leaving feedback about how potent a poison was or chatting away about their last 'cache of guns'. I could be wrong.

ramblenode 10y ago
The items are purposefully listed in order of concern rather than volume. The FBI is also in the business of selling its utility to the public, and its pitch should be treated with as much skepticism.
- elcct 10y ago
  > Some of these individuals confessed to ordering a range of illegal drugs and controlled substances online, including heroin, cocaine, morphine, and ketamine. And yet they don't do what they tell they care about. Such a waste...
Nimitz14 10y ago
It's fake. Weapons are rarely sold on marketplaces and when they are it's bait.

jstrieb 10y ago

This talks a lot about drugs and weapons, but it says nothing about what I've heard is one of the most commonly-purchased dark-net commodities: fake over-21 American licenses. It's ridiculously easy to buy a fake ID online and have it shipped right to your door, from basically any state you want---even high security states like California and New York---and for relatively cheap too. I suppose that might be because several fake ID vendors will only sell ones that show an age between 21 and 25 and only sell to people in the US to deter law enforcement based on the idea they're only selling to teens for alcohol as opposed to allowing people to be smuggled into the country or other such things. Though I have no personal experience with making purchases from darknet markets, I was curious about how easy it would actually be to get a fake ID after watching the movie Superbad. I was astounded at the wealth of information available to the benign Googler. For more interesting info: http://reddit.com/r/fakeid http://reddit.com/r/fakeid

baby 10y ago
This is interesting, needing a fake ID could be the gateway to get drugs as a young student in America. The common problem of getting alcohol when you're "under age" is leading you to learn how to get drugs online.
improv32 10y ago
These sites use bitcoin, but operate on the clear web (well they don't need tor anyway). See for example: http://scannablefakeids.com http://scannablefakeids.com looks fake but it is a real vendor

FELEG 10y ago

Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group (FELEG) Sometimes I wonder is Snowden was an orchestrated provocateur, tasked with dropping things in the open so that the operations that were big enough to be hindered by covert practices could now operate freely, in the open, and accelerate their programs. 15 or 20 years ago, an INTERPOL style coalition of this sort would have raised eyebrows. Snowden blew the lid open, and nothing changed. In fact things are taking shape faster, if (we know about them) at all.

tn13 10y ago

Wait till someone exposed that FBI itself is selling explosives, weapons and child porn on dark web. http://reason.com/blog/2016/08/31/the-fbi-distributes-child-pornography-to http://reason.com/blog/2016/08/31/the-fbi-distributes-child-...

atom_enger 10y ago
Don't know why you're being down voted. I thought it was well known that they actively commit/participate in crimes in order to entrap people.

baby 10y ago

Honestly Darknet marketplaces are doing a good thing for a lot of people. Think of all these people who would buy their drugs in the street instead. They would probably get the worst quality, and even damage themselves just to try something.

GordonS 10y ago
I agree. One of the biggest problem with illegal drugs is adulterants/fillers, and drugs not being quite what you thought they were. For example, a lot of drugs sold as MDMA contain amphetamine or worse [1] The reviews on DNMs don't eliminate this problem, but they certainly help. [1] https://www.ecstasydata.org https://www.ecstasydata.org

losvedir 10y ago

I must not understand how Tor works because it seems pretty trivial to me for the FBI or a government agency to identify users. Where's the error in my thinking: Tor works by routing a connection from your computer through a few hops in the network and then to the server. If the FBI operated the relay connected to your computer and also the server (say as a sting operation, or if they identified one and downloaded the logs), then wouldn't it be pretty easy to match the traffic through their relay (which has your naked IP address) to the traffic in the server logs?

loeg 10y ago
Part of Tor is making sure the FBI (or any other party) can't operate sufficient relays (3) to demask users.
Estragon 10y ago
It seems likely that the NSA is running a large fraction of tor nodes, and doing exactly what you suggest. It would cost a trivial fraction of their budget, and yield huge amounts of relevant information.
allemagne 10y ago
It doesn't even need to be infiltrating TOR. They caught a kid who called in a fake bomb threat to get out of a college test because his connection to the TOR network coincided with the threat. You could relay your traffic through one or more VPNs before connecting to the TOR network if you trust the companies not to keep logs or be beholden to the FBI/NSA. But realistically your only friend in a worst-case scenario is the fairly reasonable hope that these agencies don't have the ability to parse all of their raw data, that they wouldn't waste time looking for you, and that you're not important enough for them to show their hand to everyone else and reveal exactly what they're capable of.
bcook 10y ago
The traffic is encrypted from relay to relay and end to end. You can theoretically prove that someone used Tor and perhaps prove that they connected to a certain Hidden Service, but proving that they actually did something illegal (rather than just curiously browsing) is not easy to prove. Also, I think that each relay is unaware of their order in the flow, so the other connected nodes could be a Hidden Service, a Tor client, or just another relay.

micaksica 10y ago

As an infosec fan, I'm curious what "network investigative technique" (ie 0day) they used against these servers to pop them. Criminal complaints will tell what FVEY LE hath wrought.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

jyap 10y ago

Posting this story since people seem interested. The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 1 | WIRED https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/ https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/

qwertyuiop924 10y ago

There's something really disturbing about this. The FBI is cheerily talking about attacking "darknet infrastructure". In layman's terms, they're saying they want to wage war on TOR. It's kind of disturbing how pleased with themselves they are about it, though.

cloudjacker 10y ago
I know, its pretty weird

AlphaWeaver 10y ago

Though quite a long read, the feature WIRED did on the story of Silk Road [0] talks more in detail than this article about the FBI's infiltration and takedown of the site. Great read! [0]: https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/ https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/

reducesuffering 10y ago

Did the FBI really think it was a good idea to start with a huge picture of a "hacker" like that? Aren't they just romanticizing the DarkNet and possibly interesting new opponents?

jdironman 10y ago

As I posted further down in the comments: "I don't understand something. Why is a compromise not an option? Like safe spaces for such vices. State or city, or even privately owned venues with highly audited and regulated enviornments. Solid security, but also inviting enough to be an option for anyone. Revenue and taxes generated from them ofcourse benefits society, while also putting a damper on crime lords income that could possibly end up being used to fund worse activities such as human trafficking. Those who currently refuse to observe laws and still want that 'fix' have a legal option in a controlled enviornment. Reducing convictions to only those who do not utilize the safe space and put theirself and others at risk. They can cheaply and efficiently be monitored to know if they are well enough to be back in public. If not, sleep it off or have a verified driver pick them up. Consumption can be monitored possibly greatly reducing accidental overdoses. Increases availability which may lead to less 'its hard to get, I want it more' scenarios that strengthen addiction and habits. It may also help prevent people from getting in over their head by racking up debt with individuals who have no problem resorting to violence and sometimes also intentionally or unintentionaly hurting other innocent people. I truly cannot think of any 'Cons' to having such a system other than the possible general public's opinion that 'we have accepted defeat and decided to join them' pinning involved organizations and business as effectively drug dealers and just as bad. Let me summarize with an example: Gambling other than lottery is not permitted in my state as far as I know. If I want to gamble I have to hit the casinos 1-2 states over. Knowing I have such an exquisite option available if I decide to do so allows me to appreciate that. I've never stepped foot inside a casino, nor done any type of serious gambling, but if I ever did I would like for it to be in a nice, fair, and engaging enviornment like those available. Just as if I decided to take a trip on shrooms, or hit a line of cocaine just for the experience with friends. I'd rather be in a place that I can relax and know everyone involved is exponentially safer than doing so in the neighborhood crack house. I would love to hear others thoughts."

kefka 10y ago
Mainly from the US perspective, "It's an affront to God to allow such debauchery, so no one is allowed to, except for those dirty natives, that we had to allow because of the Constitution." I blame Christians, and their previous roots from the Puritans. I've seen enough other Christian-majority things shoved through as laws - it's no long stretch. And I come from the state that thinks, and funded, "electrocution to fix gayness". That was one of Mike Pence's doings in our state.

Steeeve 10y ago

I thought they did a decent job of explaining it, but by publicly exposing it in a high profile case (Silk Road) they did themselves a disservice. The fact that it's referenced regularly in primetime TV means that thousands of people who never would have heard of it now check it out - increasing darknet sales well beyond what they would have been otherwise.

syngrog66 10y ago

don't think I'll visit an FBI page on that topic. talk about the honeypot potential. esp given the potentials of a Pres Trump.

LeoPanthera 10y ago

> Payment for these goods and services is usually through virtual currency like bitcoin, also designed to be anonymous. Bitcoin is not, and was not designed to be, anonymous.

delcaran 10y ago
Actually, bitcoin is anonymous: no information links an account to his owner. However it's true that the owner of a specific account could be guessed with a good amount of precision going through all transactions history and pairing the data with those of bitcoin exchanges.
- juliangoldsmith 10y ago
  That's not anonymous, that's pseudonymous. You still have a name (an address), it just isn't your real name.

libeclipse 10y ago

> Payment for these goods and services is usually through virtual currency like bitcoin, also designed to be anonymous. Not true. Bitcoin is pseudonymous at best.

SSLy 10y ago

We're sorry... The request has been blocked. Anyone got a mirror?

id122015 10y ago

A man is a wolf for his fellow men. Ancient quote. Now do something "good" and save all those bastard children because, we were taught we are different and not animals. Law is a hipocrisy. Disrupt banking and national bank monopoly, dont run after bank fraudsters. Teach people to treat other people like humans, and disrupt the sex and mental health industries. Always resolve the root cause. But be aware, if all people were saints the pope would go bankrupt, so know who the pope is and be prepared to fight him.