The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution (2002) [pdf]

Right now they only sell trinkets, like sunglasses. But both the founders are former spooks. They live in fairfax, 20min from Langley. And they're adding Tor and Tails support in the next release.

The implications are massive and disturbing. 13yos will be able to buy heroin. It's not just breathless speculation. I probably would've done something similar, not to use it, but just to see if I could. You do that kind of stuff all the time as a faux-edgy kid. And it's easy for kids to get bitcoin from ATMs. I don't even want to think about what will happen in groups.

I'm trying to keep quiet and see what happens with the project. But all the darknet markets are apparently dead right now. It will either be one of the most empowering or damaging pieces of technology. Tor and Amazon had a baby and named it OpenBazaar.

But I know how hard it is to predict anything like that, so it's like a 90% chance I'm just posting a silly comment. It's not too hard to imagine though -- bitcoin and tor serve as examples of what's possible at the intersection of society and technology. All the elements are there for the project to have a huge impact.

You know what? We should build one. Right now. Otherwise someone else will. If we become the defacto standard, we can at least have some controls in place. You might argue that would disqualify the implementation, but network effects are very powerful. eBay is still eBay.

I think of the whole "sex ed" debate. Studies and statistics show that providing information -- and practical alternatives, such as birth and disease control -- works. "Abstinence only" does not.

Hell, even our "War on Drugs". Turns out that maybe my friend who grew magic mushrooms -- of which I never partook -- was doing better for himself than those turning to the nascent Prozac revolution. We're seeing reporting now that, under some conditions, those hallucinogenic experiences may be more effective at combating depression.

As for myself, I've come to think that the ever increasing "IP rights" are becoming an increasing burden on society and technology's development. Creative people are running up against walls hindering their creativity, walls that seem to be increasingly sold to "rent-seeking" holding companies.

To some extent, maybe those companies are useful and productive -- arbitraging initial creativity into a more reliable source of cash and/or cash flow.

But when they turn around and push for laws that continue to increase the tenure of their holdings and monopolies... They are using their position to further entrench their position, rather than foster free-flowing development.

For a long time, I tried -- more than many around me -- to "play by the rules". Belatedly, it seems, I've been becoming more aware of just how rigged "the rules" are and are becoming.

Free-flowing heroin's a scary thing. But, so's the law and order crowd -- or some of its more extreme aspects.

I realize my musings here are probably controversial. And I guess I'll add, for the sake of balance as well as whoever might be monitoring threads like these, that I continue to live a rather "squeaky clean" life.

But I can't buy in to the law and order rhetoric, any more.

From what I understand, its because they were all run by amateurs who made opsec or IT mistakes.

What I think is scary is that sooner or later, someone with the cash to hire serious professionals, like a Russian criminal gang, is going to set up a darknet marketplace that can't be cracked.