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Given the ultimate traceability of bitcoins, would anyone care to speculate how tDPR converts SR's transaction fees into fiat currency without being tracked dow

Given the ultimate traceability of bitcoins, would anyone care to speculate how tDPR converts SR's transaction fees into fiat currency without being tracked down by law enforcement?

adventured 13y ago
He is law enforcement. His interest is the vendors and mapping the network.
- youngerdryas 13y ago
  "How can you plug yourself into the tax eating, life sucking, violent, sadistic, war mongering, oppressive machine ever again? How can you kneel when you’ve felt the power of your own legs? Felt them stretch and flex as you learn to walk and think as a free person? I would rather live my life in rags now than in golden chains. And now we can have both! Now it is profitable to throw off one’s chains, with amazing crypto technology reducing the risk of doing so dramatically. How many niches have yet to be filled in the world of anonymous online markets? The opportunity to prosper and take part in a revolution of epic proportions is at our fingertips! I have no one to share my thoughts with in physical space. Security does not permit it, so thanks for listening. I hope my words can be an inspiration just as I am given so much by everyone here." Definitely a cop.
  - adventured 13y ago
    He's definitely not a cop in the sense of a Hollywood movie (eg Miami Vice). He and his team are specialists. They are to cops what the Navy Seals or Rangers are to an Army E1. The primary goal is information. They could care less about busting any given small time vendor. They want a mapping of the network of trade, origination, distribution, communication, transactions and financing. Particularly to draw currently unknown or difficult to track network nodes out into the open. It's the same thing that has been done with paedophilia online. It's a honey trap. There isn't much value in busting single nodes. They want to see how much of the network they can map out, and the leads it provides to larger players. If this concept didn't exist, they'd desperately want to create it. Given their history of creative honey pots and how long they've been leveraging technology heavily, I think it tilts Silk Road toward being a likely sponsored program.
    - MartinMond 13y ago
      Got any sources?
    - youngerdryas 13y ago
      I think you give the government too much credit. 1. How do you map the network if they are using Tor? 2. Just the idea of Silk Road is more dangerous to the powers that be than any drug networks. 3. It can not be called law enforcement if it does not go through the chain of command, which it most certainly cannot.
      - jiggy2011 13y ago
        Why would it not be able to go through the chain of command? The military and intelligence services for example engage in all kinds of covert and clandestine operations whilst still being government employees. There are also techniques which may allow tor users to be deanonymized to vary degrees. Browser/OS fingerprinting , flash cookies etc. These will be easier if you control one of the end points. I've never used silk road, but presumably if you want people to ship stuff to you , then you have to enter an address at some point?
        canttestthis 13y ago
        Its been mentioned elsewhere on the thread, Silk Road can't see any communication between buyers/sellers (its encrypted), including addresses.
        adventured 13y ago
        For one thing, this assumes all buyers and sellers are legitimate in the system. The best way to map a drug network is to become a real part of it.
        corin_ 13y ago
        Just like in the real world, it wouldn't be hard to pretend to be a seller to catch a few buyers - not hard, but also not worth doing - whereas by pretending to be a buyer you aren't going to find out the address of a seller.
- jsn 13y ago
  Yeah, riiiight. Nice try at FUD, DEA :)
- mistercow 13y ago
  I don't think running Silk Road would be very useful for that purpose, any more than running Kickstarter would be useful for mapping the traditional investing world, or running reddit would be useful for mapping print distribution networks. It would be useful for busting buyers, but no more so than traditional cop-on-the-street sting operations.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

Given the ultimate traceability of bitcoins, would anyone care to speculate how tDPR converts SR's transaction fees into fiat currency without being tracked down by law enforcement?

adventured 13y ago

He is law enforcement. His interest is the vendors and mapping the network.

youngerdryas 13y ago
"How can you plug yourself into the tax eating, life sucking, violent, sadistic, war mongering, oppressive machine ever again? How can you kneel when you’ve felt the power of your own legs? Felt them stretch and flex as you learn to walk and think as a free person? I would rather live my life in rags now than in golden chains. And now we can have both! Now it is profitable to throw off one’s chains, with amazing crypto technology reducing the risk of doing so dramatically. How many niches have yet to be filled in the world of anonymous online markets? The opportunity to prosper and take part in a revolution of epic proportions is at our fingertips! I have no one to share my thoughts with in physical space. Security does not permit it, so thanks for listening. I hope my words can be an inspiration just as I am given so much by everyone here." Definitely a cop.
- adventured 13y ago
  He's definitely not a cop in the sense of a Hollywood movie (eg Miami Vice). He and his team are specialists. They are to cops what the Navy Seals or Rangers are to an Army E1. The primary goal is information. They could care less about busting any given small time vendor. They want a mapping of the network of trade, origination, distribution, communication, transactions and financing. Particularly to draw currently unknown or difficult to track network nodes out into the open. It's the same thing that has been done with paedophilia online. It's a honey trap. There isn't much value in busting single nodes. They want to see how much of the network they can map out, and the leads it provides to larger players. If this concept didn't exist, they'd desperately want to create it. Given their history of creative honey pots and how long they've been leveraging technology heavily, I think it tilts Silk Road toward being a likely sponsored program.
  - MartinMond 13y ago
    Got any sources?
  - youngerdryas 13y ago
    I think you give the government too much credit. 1. How do you map the network if they are using Tor? 2. Just the idea of Silk Road is more dangerous to the powers that be than any drug networks. 3. It can not be called law enforcement if it does not go through the chain of command, which it most certainly cannot.
    - jiggy2011 13y ago
      Why would it not be able to go through the chain of command? The military and intelligence services for example engage in all kinds of covert and clandestine operations whilst still being government employees. There are also techniques which may allow tor users to be deanonymized to vary degrees. Browser/OS fingerprinting , flash cookies etc. These will be easier if you control one of the end points. I've never used silk road, but presumably if you want people to ship stuff to you , then you have to enter an address at some point?
      - canttestthis 13y ago
        Its been mentioned elsewhere on the thread, Silk Road can't see any communication between buyers/sellers (its encrypted), including addresses.
        adventured 13y ago
        For one thing, this assumes all buyers and sellers are legitimate in the system. The best way to map a drug network is to become a real part of it.
        corin_ 13y ago
        Just like in the real world, it wouldn't be hard to pretend to be a seller to catch a few buyers - not hard, but also not worth doing - whereas by pretending to be a buyer you aren't going to find out the address of a seller.
jsn 13y ago
Yeah, riiiight. Nice try at FUD, DEA :)
mistercow 13y ago
I don't think running Silk Road would be very useful for that purpose, any more than running Kickstarter would be useful for mapping the traditional investing world, or running reddit would be useful for mapping print distribution networks. It would be useful for busting buyers, but no more so than traditional cop-on-the-street sting operations.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]