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German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

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Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#111
post #8

> A total of at least 320,000 transactions were carried out via the marketplace That's the total from 1-2 years (I can't find when in 2019 did they start). If that's the biggest right now, I'm surprised how small the markets are.

They also had 20 servers seized which also gives an indication on size.

That doesn't give any indication of size at all. For a start "a server" isn't a standard size. That could be 20 Raspberry Pis or 20 machines equivalent to Amazon t2.2xlarge resources. Even if it was 20 Raspberry Pis, a site could handle tens of millions of transactions a year with a moderately well designed architecture.

"servers" is not a useful metric.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#112
post #75

"the largest market" always reminds me of "Bin Ladens right hand". Obviously the next one becomes the largest, but nevertheless it's like they kill at least one of those markets a month. Probably legalizing weed would stop most of that more effectively than all those police operations after month of preparation.

Uhhh... weed is not even close to the most purchased drug via the dark web. Certainly not in plant matter form. They'd have to legalize all the club/party drugs to make a dent; pills and powders, lsd.

Source? I'm not sure that's true at all. I see a lot of weed dealers when checking some of these markets.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"So, let's just legalize them all and hope that people will use them responsibly." Same logic as... "let us not legally force face masks on people, but trust in their responsibility. Let us not control social distancing, but trust that people, especially young people, will be responsible" ... booooom, over 9000 covid cases. Democracy assumes rational people and people with responsibility. We see now how well it all w…

>Democracy assumes rational people and people with responsibility. We see now how well it all works. That's got nothing to do with whether people are in a Democracy at all. It's not even to do with whether the society is individualistic or collectivist. It's more to do populist messaging and how they are spread.

Nah. The collectavistic countries are as badly affected as the individualistic countries of not more.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#114
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Maybe there are many small ones now rather than few huge ones. Would be interesting to see total dark market transactions by year.

The active ones with a significant number of transactions are a single digit amount typically with only a few 'bigger' ones (tho in reality still pretty small).

How do we know that we know all the active ones? Wouldn't they prefer to not be too widely known?

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#115
post #114
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The active ones with a significant number of transactions are a single digit amount typically with only a few 'bigger' ones (tho in reality still pretty small).

How do we know that we know all the active ones? Wouldn't they prefer to not be too widely known?

How would they have anywhere near a comparable amount of users if people can't find out about them?

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, let's just legalize them all and hope that people will use them responsibly. As a German, I can, with no problem whatsoever, go into the next supermarket and buy enough alcohol and cigarettes to severly hurt myself. No one gives a shit, probably because the state earns money when I do so. Either we find (all) drugs bad, or we stop being such liars in regards to this.

"So, let's just legalize them all and hope that people will use them responsibly." Same logic as... "let us not legally force face masks on people, but trust in their responsibility. Let us not control social distancing, but trust that people, especially young people, will be responsible" ... booooom, over 9000 covid cases. Democracy assumes rational people and people with responsibility. We see now how well it all w…

It's not the same logic. Weed isn't a contagious disease responsible for probably the majority of last year's deaths, and if you overdose on heroin, your neighbours' grandparents won't also die of a heroin overdose. There are plenty of problems with drugs, but that ain't one.

Now, banning smoking in public, that I can get behind. I don't want none of that nasty second-hand smoke.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#117
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, let's just legalize them all and hope that people will use them responsibly. As a German, I can, with no problem whatsoever, go into the next supermarket and buy enough alcohol and cigarettes to severly hurt myself. No one gives a shit, probably because the state earns money when I do so. Either we find (all) drugs bad, or we stop being such liars in regards to this.

| So, let's just legalize them all and hope that people will use them responsibly. Like for alcohol, I doubt that would work. Some substances are simply hard to use responsibly, some offer unique ways of escapism (especially during a lockdown), many people lack restraint. I don’t imagine the number of people dependent on substances would go down, it would probably just diversify. In the end, I think it’s very hard to…

I think alcohol works better as a counter-argument. In Germany, it is not only legal, but it is also legal to sell in 'bubblegum flavour party boxes', obviously aimed at children. It is legal to sell at checkout, so after a recovering alcoholic is tired out by all the shopping they can be tempted by a little bottle of vodka or whatever.

Despite this, and a social culture that revolves around drinking, the vast majority manage to avoid serious alcohol problems.

This essentially shows how responsible people are - even with a culture that makes it very easy to start, and very difficult to quit, most people manage to maintain a reasonable distance from an extremely addictive drug.

If you follow this argument along, I think if you legalized drugs, but also put some restrictions on their use (for instance, not allowing supermarkets to sell them, not allowing child-branded stuff, etc) - there's no reason to imagine the situation would not improve vis-a-vis the current one.

All this said, my preferred drug policy (for all drugs, including alcohol) would be something like a ban on their public use and sale. As somebody who used to take a lot of drugs, I have no illusions about the destabilizing influence they can have on people's lives. Alcohol is well known for being a force multiplier for pre-existing misery or mental instabillity, and I think even mild drugs, like weed, work in the same way.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#118
I get how these market places are used for digital goods (malware, credit cards), but I don’t understand how people can trade physical goods on those. If they have to exchange products, they must either meet in person or use the mail, either is trackable by the authorities. I see how the seller can protect himself for local transactions. He could leave the goods hidden somewhere and tell the buyer where to go. But the buyer has to be exposed 100% of the time.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#119
post #118

I get how these market places are used for digital goods (malware, credit cards), but I don’t understand how people can trade physical goods on those. If they have to exchange products, they must either meet in person or use the mail, either is trackable by the authorities. I see how the seller can protect himself for local transactions. He could leave the goods hidden somewhere and tell the buyer where to go. But th…

In germany, a common method is using dead-mans package stations from DHL using stolen one-time credentials to pick up the package.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"So, let's just legalize them all and hope that people will use them responsibly." Same logic as... "let us not legally force face masks on people, but trust in their responsibility. Let us not control social distancing, but trust that people, especially young people, will be responsible" ... booooom, over 9000 covid cases. Democracy assumes rational people and people with responsibility. We see now how well it all w…

It's not the same logic. Weed isn't a contagious disease responsible for probably the majority of last year's deaths, and if you overdose on heroin, your neighbours' grandparents won't also die of a heroin overdose. There are plenty of problems with drugs, but that ain't one. Now, banning smoking in public, that I can get behind. I don't want none of that nasty second-hand smoke.

Well, directly there are no negative implications, but indirectly very many.

I do not want to finance health insurance for drug addicts, for example. And yes, I agree, also smoking should be banned and the health insurance limited.

Sorry, but not sorry for having a conservative stand. You _must_ accept my opinion instead of downvoting... I thought that Pluralism of Opinions is a valued concept in democracies...

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