111–120 of 177 posts
(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.
IF you're not dealing I would advise you to think very hard about the road you're taking, because that is one heck of a habit.
I think the easiest attack on SR would not be one of the attacks mentioned in the article (although similar to their second attack, but focused on legal implications instead of fraud), but rather: a. Law enforcement creates a large number of vendor and customer accounts. Due to the pseudonymity, they can create as many as they like and they can't be linked (they may need to create them over time to avoid making the p…
It currently costs $505.90 to register an account as a vendor on Silk Road, so I do not think this is a financially feasible strategy.
That said, this single section;
Fortunately, I don’t think LE is authorized to engage in cyberwar (#1) or mass entrapment & fraud (#2). And who knows, maybe SR could survive both.
Where he discusses the degree to which the state will restrain itself from "bad behaviour" strikes me as a little naive in light of history. I'd be more concerned about attacks along the lines of the liquor poisoning that the state engaged in during alcohol prohibition.
I imagine if someone wanted to cause serious bodily harm to the potential buyers in this marketplace it wouldn't be too difficult to do, and they've proven historically they're prepared to go to this extent. I also imagine it would have quite a high impact on the risk assessment of silk road buyers if people started ending up dead from their purchases.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
To me the problem is the delivery system. Everything is completely untraceable up until the very second you enter your home address. Is there really a feasible way to evade this liability? Maybe there is a market for truly anonymous "po boxes" or something? How else do you keep the last step anonymous?
2. Once the package is delivered, get to the apartment and tell the owner "Oh, I'm so sorry, I accidentally entered Apartment 123 in my order, instead of Apartment 223, which is where I actually live! I can haz package nao?" Most likely, they will not know the residents at Apartment 223.
3. In most cases, you will now have your package. (If they ask for some ID, you could always go "Sure, do you want me to get that first?", most people will then give you the package right there. If not, just leave and don't come back.)
Yes, this is a purely hypothetical idea, but it seems to me that it's pretty easy to come up with something relatively secure.
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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.
>there are much simpler and better-priced places to get those online than SR for example?
(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.
Talking about Tor; you can built your own Silk Road with http://osclass.org/ (it's a software for creating your own classified site) and using the Tor plugin http://blog.osclass.org/2013/01/21/anonymous-with-tor-plugin... . Disclosure: I participate in Osclass.
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Criminal lawyers make 1.2 million in a month?
as other said, their cut is under $100K. A decent criminal lawyer will take that in a month and tell you that he needs $2-$3++ million for a drug case. (From Aaron S case we learned that a simple fed case is $1.5 million, on average)
[citation needed], which is really a passive-aggressive way of saying "bollocks". Well I'm not saying that Pablo Escobar's lawyers didn't bank that much, but really - there are thousands of drug dealers tried every single day, a sizable percentage of that with turnovers way over 100k / month - you're not seriously suggesting their defenses all cost millions? 500 hours (= almost 3 full-time man months!) at 150 USD / hour = 'only' 75k.
I think the easiest attack on SR would not be one of the attacks mentioned in the article (although similar to their second attack, but focused on legal implications instead of fraud), but rather: a. Law enforcement creates a large number of vendor and customer accounts. Due to the pseudonymity, they can create as many as they like and they can't be linked (they may need to create them over time to avoid making the p…
It currently costs $505.90 to register an account as a vendor on Silk Road, so I do not think this is a financially feasible strategy.
You can already write the press release "undercover mission", "highly sophisticated system of professional drug dealers", "illegal money laundering", oh and how could I forget "financing terrorism".
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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.
Why not spend even one evening thinking it over, maybe talking about it with someone you trust, see what your options are? You are obviously smart and determined, and a drug habit doesn't have to be unavoidable fate.