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Silk Road 2.0 Launches

forbes.com

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Re: Silk Road 2.0 Launches

#211

Post by wepple »

thex86 wrote: post #27

A serious question: while I have nothing against Silk Road (the drug war is a waste of money anyways), aren't people afraid of putting stuff in their body that they had an anonymous person send to them? I mean, unless the seller has a reputation, isn't there is a substantial risk of using that drug? Are my fears unfound? On one hand, the idea of buying drugs online is probably more safe than doing it on the streets,…

There are actually some independent people who test various drugs on Silk Road. Obviously they could be wrong/rigged, but it seems like a far better step than buying anywhere else:

The LSD Avengers are a group of individuals that perform trip, reagent, and lab tests on LSD that is found on the Silk Road in order to verify the legitimacy of the product and to weed out scammers. Their primary goal is to aide individuals in easily finding the holy grail of psychedelics.

Re: Silk Road 2.0 Launches

#212

Post by lowkeykiwi »

dobbsbob wrote: post #197
schenecstasy wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm looking for an Etsy for drugs. I want my synthetic opiates cradled in a lace & cordoroy kerchief that states "rustic charm".

It's called Alibaba. I haven't checked in about a year but I recall finding MDMA precursors, Meth precursors and bulk Opium for sale on it.

mmmmm bulk opium

Re: Silk Road 2.0 Launches

#213

Post by Wingman4l7 »

cLeEOGPw wrote: post #9
ihsw wrote: post #6

I have a sneaking suspicion that it's a honeypot. Just a hunch.

Could be, but would they really dare to mock themselves in the honeypot? If it is a honeypot, it's very convincing and elaborate.

Would an undercover cop say "fuck the police!" when talking to the people he was angling to bust? Of course he would.

Re: Silk Road 2.0 Launches

#214

Post by gwern »

nerfhammer wrote: post #123
gwern wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can leave bad feedback, and take it to the dispute center to force the seller to defend themselves to the SR admins. This is more recourse than you have in practice against a grocery store if they refuse to give you a refund - what are you going to do, sue them?

If a grocery store harms you in an illegal way you they can be punished by the force of the state in a variety of ways. The same is not true of a anonymous person on an inbound tor site.

> If a grocery store harms you in an illegal way you they can be punished by the force of the state in a variety of ways.

Hypothetically. If you have enough money. And enough evidence. Good luck with that. I'd rather take my chances in SR's dispute resolution center...

Re: Silk Road 2.0 Launches

#215

Post by lowkeykiwi »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #170
andrewljohnson wrote: post #3

I'd never buy heroin from a website, but I see the Silk Road as cyber-civil-disobedience, and I hope the persona of DPR and the site itself are as unsinkable as they claim. The drug war is a ghastly thing, and the number of people we lock up in the US is more shameful than our foreign policy. You can begrudge the first DPR his lame security, shady murder contracts, and ill-gotten fortune, but he's the product of our…

> I'd never buy heroin from a website I'd rather buy heroin from Silk Road (where it's peer-reviewed and often tested by third-parties) than on the street. Buying online is just overall less risky.

Depends how well you know your dealer.

Re: Silk Road 2.0 Launches

#216

Post by ssharp »

OvidNaso wrote: post #126
jbackus wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use digital black markets like the silk road as an analogue for legalization though. Forget how the vendors obtain the drugs for a second and just analyze the differences in distribution and consumption between offline and online drug trade. Offline there is: - competition via violence - political narcoterrorism - profit maximization by product dilution - profit maximization by product deception (most street…

Violence amongst end user drug dealers is very rare and confined to specific, very poor, areas. Wholesale is the only place where you start to see significant amounts of cash, and hence most of the problems, and that has zero differences between offline and on. There is no 'political narcoterrorism' between the guys selling 8ths of coke in the neighborhood. You're also mischaracterizing the drug trade with regards to…

Additionally, although many street dealers operate in areas you'd probably associate with being high-crime, the drug gangs are pretty aware that customers need some sense of safety when buying product and don't have any more reason to see their customers robbed or assaulted than any legit shop owner.

If you're interested in an observed account of a drug gang, there is a book called "Gang Leader for a Day" where the author spent a lot of time in a housing project, with the guy who ran that faction of the gang. It has its flaws but it was an interesting read:

http://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sudhir-Venkatesh-ebook...

Re: Silk Road 2.0 Launches

#217

Post by fingerprinter »

yeukhon wrote: post #169
nekopa wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An honest question: Why not?

1. I am against illegal drugs. It is up to the society to have a consent whether x drug should be legal or not. For example, marijuana. 2. Liability and safety. It's safer to assume your pharmacist is giving the right drug and the right amount and the right quality. I am all for reducing the cost and I think we should lower the cost whenever possible, but getting through silk road because it's cheaper/easier to get d…

> 1. I am against illegal drugs. It is up to the society to have a consent whether x drug should be legal or not. For example, marijuana.

Is this only for drugs? If so, why only for drugs? If not, does that mean you want to be governed by popular opinion?

I'm actually astounded someone on HN would make this statement so I'm genuinely interested in the rationale.

Re: Silk Road 2.0 Launches

#218

Post by ledge »

OvidNaso wrote: post #126
jbackus wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use digital black markets like the silk road as an analogue for legalization though. Forget how the vendors obtain the drugs for a second and just analyze the differences in distribution and consumption between offline and online drug trade. Offline there is: - competition via violence - political narcoterrorism - profit maximization by product dilution - profit maximization by product deception (most street…

Violence amongst end user drug dealers is very rare and confined to specific, very poor, areas. Wholesale is the only place where you start to see significant amounts of cash, and hence most of the problems, and that has zero differences between offline and on. There is no 'political narcoterrorism' between the guys selling 8ths of coke in the neighborhood. You're also mischaracterizing the drug trade with regards to…

The majority of personal use sales are not conducted with a "gangster", true, but the small-time college ecstasy or coke dealer conducting those personal use sales IS making regular trips to the hood, purchasing from people who are hardened criminals. They expose themselves to a lot of risk in doing this.

You don't have to move far up the chain before you see some serious violence. Personal use weed dealer? Probably not going to get killed. But robbed? Yes, definitely, seen it happen many times. Personal use coke, ecstasy, heroin dealer? Much more likely to experience violence. The dealer one level above, supplying the personal use dealers? They get killed all the time, despite not being drug kingpins in any sense. It only costs 1000$-2000$ to have someone killed in many parts of the US, so that should say something about the chance of violence that small-time dealers face.

Silk Road was more than personal use sales, I'd bet the majority of its revenue came from pounds and half pounds of weed, sheets of LSD, and orders of 500+ ecstasy pills. Heroin and coke haven't caught on as much yet in the online scene, with prices still a little above what well-connected users can get on the streets, but give it time. Also keep in mind that the online drug scene is more than just SR/BMR/Sheep and that there are private forums that deal strictly in wholesale.

Re: Silk Road 2.0 Launches

#219

Post by iskander »

spikels wrote: post #174
pizza234 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no certainty of anonymity, especially in Mexico, for two reasons. First, drug cartels have very easily control of the IT infrastructures, and second, they now employ hackers exactly to keep the internet information under control. They've killed several bloggers already, and you can be sure they thought they were anonymous.

The cartels can employ all the hackers and torture all the bloggers they want but it will still be very hard to find sellers on SilkRoad. You will need to break Tor, trace BitCoins, trace deliveries, or trick sellers. This takes national or even international resources (NSA, FBI, Interpol, etc.). And they will have to do this in the US and Europe not Mexico.

>You will need to break Tor, trace BitCoins, trace deliveries, or trick sellers.

These aren't all of equivalent difficulty...

Re: Silk Road 2.0 Launches

#220

Post by dwaltrip »

pizza234 wrote: post #159
lem72 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the Mom and Pop shop can now be anonymous and the evil druglord will have a hard time finding them since they can't go torture the street dealers that peddle Mom&Popshop & Co drugs.

There is no certainty of anonymity, especially in Mexico, for two reasons. First, drug cartels have very easily control of the IT infrastructures, and second, they now employ hackers exactly to keep the internet information under control. They've killed several bloggers already, and you can be sure they thought they were anonymous.

They would be fighting a losing war (ironically, like the drug wars itself). Tracking down random silk road sellers is not really that easy.
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