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Using Silk Road

gwern.net

51–60 of 177 posts

Re: Using Silk Road

#51
post #17

(throwaway account) I've spent over $50,000 USD on SR in the past year, and I'm happy to answer any questions people have about the site or community.

What personal drug habit requires $50k? If it is blow, that's at least an 8-ball every single day for a year. I can only guess you're buying that volume of drugs to resell it. Which is essentially why the guy in NZ was caught.

Re: Using Silk Road

#52
post #50
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's arrogant about wanting to talk to people you consider smarter than yourself?

Perhaps our anonymous troll was offended at Jacques Chester's implication that talking to people smarter than J.C. is an unusual occasion for J.C.

I ... hadn't thought of it that way.

Satori in 3 ... 2 ...

Re: Using Silk Road

#53
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think mentioning the $50K figure invites some questions.

I am not a dealer. As the OP said, I have a gigantic drug habit. I suspect that, like many HN readers, I am a young guy who works in technology and makes more money than is good for him. I am single and unattached, so I've got plenty of disposable income. And I seem to be good (so far) at remaining a stable, productive employee despite my habit.

This story typically doesn't have a very nice ending. Maybe you're just having some fun, and will be able to shrug it off some day. I hope so. But if you find yourself trying to quit, and unable to, try to find some help.

Sometimes it takes a lot of tries, with lots of different kinds of help from lots of different kinds of folks.

Re: Using Silk Road

#54
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps our anonymous troll was offended at Jacques Chester's implication that talking to people smarter than J.C. is an unusual occasion for J.C.

I ... hadn't thought of it that way. Satori in 3 ... 2 ...

I learned a new word

Re: Using Silk Road

#55
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have purchases sent to my home, most of the time. I have never lost a package that was actually mailed, though I have been scammed a couple of times by vendors who never send anything. I try to stick to domestic vendors to avoid customs, but sometimes it is impossible due to supply issues. When I am ordering internationally I stick to Canada if possible. I once had a package from India get stuck in customs for over…

Does the article reflect your experience?

[deleted]

Re: Using Silk Road

#56
post #35

Here's an academic analysis of Silk Road. After crawling the site for a few months they came up with this: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/nicolasc/publications/TR-CMU-... "Abstract We perform a comprehensive measurement analysis of Silk Road, an anonymous, international online marketplace that operates as a Tor hidden service and uses Bitcoin as its exchange currency. We gather and analyze data over eight months betw…

$1.2 million is an infinitesimal slice of the illegal drug market, but if an ordinary startup handled 1.2 million in transactions per month they'd be ecstatic. Still, it seems like the risk far outweighs the gain here.

It's only small because bitcoins are a pain in the ass to get, and haven't spread yet. Once they become mainstream, there's no reason SilkRoad can't be the next huge thing. Think about - there's nothing that stops them from selling pirated books, movies, clothing at a huge discount compared to, let's say, Amazon.

Many things only cost a lot because the manufacturer's profit margin is huge. That's true about anything clothing-related.

Re: Using Silk Road

#57
post #17

(throwaway account) I've spent over $50,000 USD on SR in the past year, and I'm happy to answer any questions people have about the site or community.

What opiates are you mostly buying?

Unless you are ordering Heroin, which is very expensive on SR, at that spending rate you are probably buying Oxys or Opanas.

This might surprise some, but there are much simpler and better-priced places to get those online than SR / with 24h turn-around, overnight UPS - that won't involve an eventual FBI/DEA reverse sting - which is were SR is heading with all this attention.

Re: Using Silk Road

#58
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1.2 million is an infinitesimal slice of the illegal drug market, but if an ordinary startup handled 1.2 million in transactions per month they'd be ecstatic. Still, it seems like the risk far outweighs the gain here.

It's only small because bitcoins are a pain in the ass to get, and haven't spread yet. Once they become mainstream, there's no reason SilkRoad can't be the next huge thing. Think about - there's nothing that stops them from selling pirated books, movies, clothing at a huge discount compared to, let's say, Amazon. Many things only cost a lot because the manufacturer's profit margin is huge. That's true about anything…

> Think about - there's nothing that stops them from selling pirated books, movies, clothing at a huge discount compared to, let's say, Amazon.

And that is precisely when Bitcoins will receive renewed focus from officials all over and g-men will step forth to somehow try to make operations involving Bitcoins illegal.

Re: Using Silk Road

#59
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ... hadn't thought of it that way. Satori in 3 ... 2 ...

I learned a new word

Just a caveat though, jacques_chester is using the term in a way that's metaphorical, but not correct according to the literal definition. That is, if he now understands someone else's point of view then that implies there's still a 'he' to have understood something, which means that he couldn't actually be in a state of non-dual consciousness by definition.

Re: Using Silk Road

#60
post #17

(throwaway account) I've spent over $50,000 USD on SR in the past year, and I'm happy to answer any questions people have about the site or community.

What opiates are you mostly buying? Unless you are ordering Heroin, which is very expensive on SR, at that spending rate you are probably buying Oxys or Opanas. This might surprise some, but there are much simpler and better-priced places to get those online than SR / with 24h turn-around, overnight UPS - that won't involve an eventual FBI/DEA reverse sting - which is were SR is heading with all this attention.

Unless you're dealing to others maybe?
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