I've never been on the darknet. Where are all these reviews? Are there different drug selling sites where the sites are trusted enough not to remove negative reviews?
On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
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Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
How would the end buyer know if the tests were genuine? The vendors could easily be paying for good results since there’s zero transparency or ability to check.
They could also just send in pure / accurately labeled stuff in for testing, unless the testing company is ordering stuff at random from an alias / PO Box or something to prevent sellers from masking their true products ingredients.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#63Somebody in the comments of the article brought up a good point. What happens when the site gets shut down? As apparently is the case according to the comment author.
I know it's a trope, a huge joke and everything, but this seems like a perfect place to leave notes on the blockchain. It's something that can't be "cleaned" outside of the darknet, it's permanent, and supposedly impossible to forge a private key to manipulate one party's records. It would make it possible for customers to look back for the records of that wallet, or some tagged transactions to see a record of interactions to give credence to the reputation of that user.
It's a neat idea, removing enough anonymity in a world of the anonymous to establish trust, but not enough to establish a hard identity in order to carry reputation across the *net.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#64How do you know as a buyer/seller that you're not dealing with someone from the NDA? Isn't it possible that accounts get seized?
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I don't see how open source is a communist model, nobody is coerced to publish their code, they do because they want to, even several companies are making some of their source code public for improving the trust that their client has in their product and increase their sales.
You're confusing communism with transition socialism.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#66I 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…
Drug dealing is commerce that happens to be illegal. It's completely logical that most of the considerations of an ordinary market apply here. Drugs are a "victimless crime" in the technical sense that if all goes as planned, none of the people involved would have any complaint afterwards. The thing is, the article doesn't mention the market for less victim-less crimes. It seems like a market for "murder for hire" wo…
Drug sale and use is not victimless. The costs vary with the type of drug and the enforcement regime but the social costs never go to zero.
There can be huge negative externalities involved with drug use, as anyone with a family member who has a drug problem could tell you.
Even in the most enlightened societies one would have to acknowledge that support and rehabilitation for the small percentage of users who have problems creates a burden on society.
Since these costs are generally not borne by either party to the transaction there is a fairly straight-forward case for regulation here.
For this reason I do support banning some drugs and regulating most of them (including cigarettes and alcohol).
I don't think this is inconsistent with free market ideology at all. As far as I know, no one wants a totally free market for semtex, plutonium or nerve gas (I do admit those are perhaps overly emotive examples).
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#67I 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…
Drug dealing is commerce that happens to be illegal. It's completely logical that most of the considerations of an ordinary market apply here. Drugs are a "victimless crime" in the technical sense that if all goes as planned, none of the people involved would have any complaint afterwards. The thing is, the article doesn't mention the market for less victim-less crimes. It seems like a market for "murder for hire" wo…
> none of the people involved would have any complaint afterwards.
Rating the buyer's satisfaction depends a heck of a lot on your timescale. For many drugs and many users, sure, it's a net positive out to infinity.
But in the midst of an opioid crisis, we need to acknowledge that many people are having their brains broken in a way that their short term preferences (yes, more fentanyl please!) are completely out of sync with their long-term ones (shit, I wish I hadn't destroyed my life).
Treating the drug market like some idealized commodity exchange seems naive and harmful.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#68I 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…
That subreddit no longer exists.
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#69I 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…
if they hurt their customers, they might not sell as much too... so number of transactions by itself might be an interesting metric
Re: On the Darknet, Reputation Is Everything
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Drug dealing is commerce that happens to be illegal. It's completely logical that most of the considerations of an ordinary market apply here. Drugs are a "victimless crime" in the technical sense that if all goes as planned, none of the people involved would have any complaint afterwards. The thing is, the article doesn't mention the market for less victim-less crimes. It seems like a market for "murder for hire" wo…
Drug sale and use is not victimless. The costs vary with the type of drug and the enforcement regime but the social costs never go to zero. There can be huge negative externalities involved with drug use, as anyone with a family member who has a drug problem could tell you. Even in the most enlightened societies one would have to acknowledge that support and rehabilitation for the small percentage of users who have p…
Drug sale and use is not victimless. The costs vary with the type of drug and the enforcement regime but the social costs never go to zero.
The selling of drugs may be undesirable some people's minds, "society" may decide it should be suppressed. That's your judgment but drug use remains "victimless" in the sense I described earlier - all people involved want the event to happen. Theft or assault are against cooperative victims who will come to police to complain (in the case of murder, the relatives would). So enforcement dynamics are different. That is all.
I'd mention that those opposed to drug laws would say the costs are predicated on the enforcement itself.