So...just like real life drug/arms dealers? Shocking.
I think the main take away is, "trustworthiness [consist of] competence, reliability, and honesty" and how these markets/vendors/customers create it; by satisfying all the above.
On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
21–30 of 150 posts
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#22It is somewhat amusing that the cocaine in the stock photo costs 0.13BTC at a price of $27. I know people who have bought weed for the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars in today's bitcoin (even post crash). The comment about eBay is interesting - that negative feedback is scarce because people don't bother if they're unhappy. I think one aspect is that it's more difficult to leave a negative review, and…
TL;DR Seller did wrong and it cost _me_ reputation. I left a neutral feedback one time because of a legitimate seller problem, but otherwise things were fine. The feedback didn't affect his seller score. The seller left negative retaliation feedback and then offered to have us both unpublished (or something) the feedback so that it didn't affect my reputation. I learned you don't ever leave negative feedback on ebay.
I wish you could have personal blacklists of sellers so they don't appear in your own search results.
Many years ago I avoided leaving negative feedback on a seller that agreeably accepted a return on stuff that was obviously counterfeit. A couple years later I felt like an idiot when I received garbage again, then realized that it was the same seller that had tried to quietly scam me before.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's because the incentives of your drug dealer are more aligned with your well-being than the incentives of your bank or government. That's not always the case, but when it happens, even the worst criminal can be a better friend than a legit operation, for which the only reason not to screw you over completely is the potential legal fuss.
This is one argument against capitalism as a whole, and it's worth taking seriously. Capitalism is still the best tool we have, but it's not without downsides. Example: open source is the communist model, and it works very well. To each according to their need, from each according to their ability. No one owns anything, and you're free to fork or vote with your feet. Ditto for illegal drug markets. If you're unhappy…
Unhappy = Dead might be an explanation for that.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#24> For instance, on eBay less than 2 percent of all feedback left is negative or neutral. One explanation is that dissatisfied customers are substantially less likely to give feedback. It means the most important information, the negative reputation data, is not being captured. Can negative feedback on eBay be cancelled? Because if it can be, then I'll give you a much more plausible explanation - sellers bribe custome…
It's against the ToS, considered Feedback Extortion. Most sellers don't want to risk their account, being totally banned is a much bigger deal than being less promoted for a while. Messages like that are monitored, and I assume transactions are too. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but most sellers will just suck it up and deal with the rare negative. Further as a seller you don't want to "just give out refunds/free stuff" every time someone throws a negative at you because you're just inviting in all the scammers.
Also sellers cannot leave negative feedback for buyers -at all- so that also contributes.
https://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-extortion.html
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#25It is somewhat amusing that the cocaine in the stock photo costs 0.13BTC at a price of $27. I know people who have bought weed for the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars in today's bitcoin (even post crash). The comment about eBay is interesting - that negative feedback is scarce because people don't bother if they're unhappy. I think one aspect is that it's more difficult to leave a negative review, and…
I think the past norm was for sellers to leave positive feedback when they received money, and for buyers to leave positive feedback when they received a product that was accurately described. I have had good experiences buying and selling large items like computers on eBay, but I don't like the new practice of sellers withholding feedback until they get positive feedback.
Sellers can't leave negative feedback for buyers at all.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#26It's kinda funny to notice that in the article the writer is describing the stereotype of a drug dealer being untrusted, yet based on my experience and what I've seen, I would rather trust an online drug dealer than for example my bank or the people running our government. That's kinda fucked up right there, won't you say ?
You're comparing apples with oranges. A drug dealer is a peon, someone at the very bottom of an enormous multinational pyramid who sells a commodity product in a market where every disgruntled customer has the ability to put them behind bars, rather than just leave a bad review online.
This is actually the most prime example of an 'untrusted' relationship. If it weren't for the total imbalance of power you have to bring the full force of the government down on a drug dealer without any need for a reason, you wouldn't do business with them at all.
If, on the other hand, you had to do business with the head of one of these multinational drug syndicates, you would start to understand this power dynamic more completely, as the power balance would flip. All of a sudden, the person you are dealing with no longer fears law enforcement. They are no longer a peon - they have bought off people in the government, acquired arms, trained a small army of their own, and now have to power to kill you or your associates without fear of reprisal. Would you still describe doing business with these people as a 'trusted' transaction? Of course not. You would start showing up to all your business dealings with your own goons, weapons, and armored vehicles. There would be zero trust that each transaction wouldn't end in a firefight.
Compare this to walking into your local bank branch, where with the correct documentation a typical local branch manager can give you a loan for over $1M without having ever done business with you before. That is the definition of a trusted transaction.
You've just become so desensitized to the marvel of it all that you might not be aware of what the alternative looks like.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#27What are the latest dark net markets these days anyway and have they gone Monero native yet? 2-of-3 multisig will at least provide software level trust of the escrow process. The reviews on quality of goods would still be important though, but from an enforcement side it will be exponentially more expensive to take down one of these sites. Prior DNM busts typically also got the warchest of everything held in escrow,…
I've referred to deepdotweb for market information lately: https://www.deepdotweb.com/dark-net-market-comparison-chart/ I don't see anything about Monero on this page, but I'm sure it's there if you dig around.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#28I think it's a really positive thing that people are able to leave reviews for drug purchases. In the absence of FDA regulation, a public reputation system incentivizes dealers to avoid harming their customers with dangerously-adulterated products. In the midst of an opioid crisis, with people overdosing on heroin cut with fentanyl, having this accountability can save lives. There's a subreddit (whose name I won't me…
Not only that, but some of those markets (mostly defunct ones by now though, and only a minority) hired "official" doctors to answer questions from the users on drug use or similar.
You also have communities (like the "DNM avengers" one) that will freely and anonymously test the products of some vendors to confirm whether or not what they are selling is in fact the product described, and how pure it is. Some vendors in turn will proudly link to the posts describing those tests.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#29What are the latest dark net markets these days anyway and have they gone Monero native yet? 2-of-3 multisig will at least provide software level trust of the escrow process. The reviews on quality of goods would still be important though, but from an enforcement side it will be exponentially more expensive to take down one of these sites. Prior DNM busts typically also got the warchest of everything held in escrow,…
These days: Dream (highly unprofessional / suspicious), Libertas, CGMC (only cannabis & psychedelics, extremely well done), and Zion (up and down due to DDOS). The last one at the very least support Monero, but I believe it's not the only one. That list is only a list of the "true" markets; there are also numerous forum-based ones. A lot of the above also handle multisig (including monero multisig), to make sure a vendor can get his coins even if the market disappears.
There's also a galaxy of small websites / forums opened by single vendors themselves, in order to sell directly.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#30I think it's a really positive thing that people are able to leave reviews for drug purchases. In the absence of FDA regulation, a public reputation system incentivizes dealers to avoid harming their customers with dangerously-adulterated products. In the midst of an opioid crisis, with people overdosing on heroin cut with fentanyl, having this accountability can save lives. There's a subreddit (whose name I won't me…
Unless trying the product becomes fatal. Wouldn't this be a selection bias?