131–140 of 260 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say that if you're caught and ... somehow manage to delete all the evidence linking you ( you have device explosives or, idk, 2048 bit encryption ), you may be able to escape, but come on, who are we kidding: the FBI has like a 99.96% conviction rate and that's without even going to into the "parallel construction" or other conspiratorial lines of attack.
The FBI has "like a 99.96% conviction rate"?
It's good advice. The problem with anonymity in an environment of ubiquitous surveillance is that it's paradoxical. The point of anonymity is achieving freedom, but staying anonymous expends energy and makes you a target, so you can't actually do any things that anonymity was supposed to get you. If what you really want is sovereignty, which is what most people confuse anonymity with, the goal is to be like what Erns…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tor is amateur hour. The Feds can easily deanomymize things where a server is up 24/7 servicing requests. The author of this article is also very wrong: Anonymity is not on a spectrum. It’s all or nothing. Like a Mario game where any mistaken encounter makes you start over (and that’s if you don’t get in trouble for what you did). First step is to understand that any system could be bugged. Every IRL confidant could…
You thought this through too well. Probably should be traced back, put in a list and investigated just for this comment.
Or you can just be a known drug lord, launder billions of USD through a respected international bank, no one goes to jail, small fine, and they're probably still laundering 10 years later and no one cares. No one is anonymous. They're probably all using SMS and corporate email. Sell a little bit of drugs through the silk road and you'll get royally f-ed! Sell all the opioids in the world through a public pharma corp…
>Or you can just be a known drug lord, launder billions of USD through a respected international bank, no one goes to jail, small fine, Are you referring to some specific drug lord? Who?
Or you can just be a known drug lord, launder billions of USD through a respected international bank, no one goes to jail, small fine, and they're probably still laundering 10 years later and no one cares. No one is anonymous. They're probably all using SMS and corporate email. Sell a little bit of drugs through the silk road and you'll get royally f-ed! Sell all the opioids in the world through a public pharma corp…
>Or you can just be a known drug lord, launder billions of USD through a respected international bank, no one goes to jail, small fine, Are you referring to some specific drug lord? Who?
My point being, this went on for a long time before they got "busted" and the bank people knew who they were dealing with.
They didn't have to use crypto or tor or whatever to stay anonymous. They just used cash, everyone knew each other. They probably had dinners with coke and champagne. And when they did get "busted", somehow no one goes to prison, there's a small fine (relatively speaking), and everyone walks.
My guess is they're all still in business doing the same thing. The bankers, the regulators, the cartel people...
Or you can just be a known drug lord, launder billions of USD through a respected international bank, no one goes to jail, small fine, and they're probably still laundering 10 years later and no one cares. No one is anonymous. They're probably all using SMS and corporate email. Sell a little bit of drugs through the silk road and you'll get royally f-ed! Sell all the opioids in the world through a public pharma corp…
I don't think you can compare a legitimate business publishing public accounting figures, operating within the law, subject to policy by elected officials with the illicit drug trade who's supply chains operate in the dark. These supply chains are probably responsible for thousands of deaths, human trafficking, and unfathomable suffering whose actors you have no possible way of mitigating their actions.
I grow weary of hearing this recurring argument that the relatively minor side effects of a free market being compared to pure evil.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tor is amateur hour. The Feds can easily deanomymize things where a server is up 24/7 servicing requests. The author of this article is also very wrong: Anonymity is not on a spectrum. It’s all or nothing. Like a Mario game where any mistaken encounter makes you start over (and that’s if you don’t get in trouble for what you did). First step is to understand that any system could be bugged. Every IRL confidant could…
> 3. Pay and get paid in cryptocurrency. Have smart contracts send you the money (think Richard Heart’s Hex origin address, but actually anonymous). My first question about this plan is "what are you getting paid for and how do you advertise your services"? You need to never meet the people paying you in person, and ideally you are selling some purely digital good. So, something like underground illegal programming o…
Or you can just be a known drug lord, launder billions of USD through a respected international bank, no one goes to jail, small fine, and they're probably still laundering 10 years later and no one cares. No one is anonymous. They're probably all using SMS and corporate email. Sell a little bit of drugs through the silk road and you'll get royally f-ed! Sell all the opioids in the world through a public pharma corp…
Sure, big pharma over does it sometimes but remember that people truly need these drugs sometimes and they are prescribed by well intentioned doctors. I don't think you can compare a legitimate business publishing public accounting figures, operating within the law, subject to policy by elected officials with the illicit drug trade who's supply chains operate in the dark. These supply chains are probably responsible…
"Three major drug distributors and the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson have agreed to a $26 billion settlement with states to resolve thousands of lawsuits over the country's opioid crisis, officials announced Wednesday."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/4-companies-near-26-bil...
None of these executives were anonymous or ever had to be. They made a ton of money doing bad things, they'll keep most of the money and they'll never go to prison.
They way you deal with this is, obviously in my mind, through the rule of law and a robust functioning society that regulates commerce. Not wild-west free market.
I miss the point of this discussion. Does the HN readership really include a substantial number of drug lords, cyber criminals, spies, informants or live under a regime where they fear for their lives from state actors? I'm not cheating on my taxes or my spouse. Are there really many people being paid in cybercash from a genuine need to avoid state or corporate interest?
There's a middle ground somewhere here, in between "Don't be a criminal" and "Don't be stupid." I don't think the lesson we should take from AlphaBay is "Take better privacy safeguards" but "Don't set up an illegal dark web operation."