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An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

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Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#71

Post by orik »

pyre wrote: post #3

> police have been devoting a huge amount of resources to track down peaceful people engaged in voluntary trade like Charlie Shrem and the operators of the Silk Road Market Um, the "operator(s) of Silk Road Market" allegedly attempted to hire a contract killer. I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of peaceful, if true.

   The “police have been devoting a huge amount of resources to track down 
   peaceful people engaged in voluntary trade like Charlie Shrem and the 
   operators of the Silk Road Market,” Ver says
The part you left out is the most context that that statement was made by Ver, someone interviewed for the article, and no real claim was being made that the Silk Road is peacefully run.

You can gain additional insight into the statement when you look at how Robert McMillian introduces Ver, a few paragraphs back.

   Ver put a 37 bitcoin bounty on [the hackers] head.
   [Ver] was himself sentenced to 10 months in federal prison...

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#72

Post by jpindar »

jessaustin wrote: post #59
[deleted] wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Have you read that link? Do you know what is under discussion here? The actual misunderstanding is between reducing something by a tenth and reducing it by a great deal . In that context, "decimate" does indeed mean to reduce by a tenth. Even the most pessimistic legalization forecasts see greater changes in trafficking than a reduction of a tenth. Maybe you're not a churchgoer, but the additional meaning of "tithe"…

Language changes whether you like it or not. There are plenty of changes happening that I don't like, but I realize that in most cases it is a waste of time to fight them.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#73

Post by jotux »

josh2600 wrote: post #31
jotux wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently saw an episode of "Anthony Bourdain - Parts Unknown" where he visits Colombia. He talked to locals about the drug trade and one person he interviewed made a very good argument that stuck with me: Many people see drugs as a single problem with a single solution (eliminate all the drugs). But it's much more reasonable to see it as two problems: trafficking and use. Trafficking would be decimated with legaliz…

Minor point but one that I think is valuable. Decimating something is to reduce it by 1/10th. You are thinking of it as an analogy for destroy which it is not.

Every dictionary I can find defines decimate as "destroy a large part of." A few of them mention the 1-in-10 definition as obsolete.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#74

Post by wyager »

pyre wrote: post #3

> police have been devoting a huge amount of resources to track down peaceful people engaged in voluntary trade like Charlie Shrem and the operators of the Silk Road Market Um, the "operator(s) of Silk Road Market" allegedly attempted to hire a contract killer. I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of peaceful, if true.

Those charges were dropped, iirc. It seems quite possible that that's not actually what happened.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#75

Post by ChuckMcM »

keithpeter wrote: post #70

"Ver, who was himself sentenced to 10 months in federal prison for illegally shipping explosive across state lines, believes that Savaged is not only the same person who swatted Hal Finney, but also the person who gained access to Satoshi Nakamoto’s email account earlier this year." --quote from OA... Why does anyone ship explosives across state lines (or anywhere) unless they run a demolition company? Just wondering…

In the US typically its fireworks rather than bomb making material.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#76

Post by mercurial »

murbard2 wrote: post #69
EpicEng wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but the police do not decide which laws to ignore and which to enforce. They are the enforcement arm, not the legislative. No one should be alarmed that people when people are arrested for peddling illegal drugs.

Police officers can, and should, use their conscience to decide whether or not to enforce certain laws. If you want a legal precedent, the Nuremberg trials somewhat settled that question.

Well, the likely continued impunity of the practitioners of "enhanced interrogation" means that it's a legal precedent that applies only to evil Nazis.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#77

Post by maccam912 »

Hey early adopters: you have no doubt heard how easy it is to de-anonymize bitcoin transactions. If someone demands 1000 btc to stop them from "swatting" your house, why not let the police know, send a very small amount to the address they no doubt want the money sent to, and let police take it form there?

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#78

Post by mercurial »

bjourne wrote: post #51
reverend_gonzo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's empowering others to destroy their lives, which very often leads to more crime as addicts will steal or even kill for their next fix. What about alcohol? Cigarettes? Poker? Penny stocks? All of these things have contributed to people blowing their savings, futures, and ruining their own lives and their families' lives. By criminalizing drugs, people who want to fix their behavior are unable to because they're…

What's this argument that if N vices are legal, then N+1 vices should be legal too? Yes, it's true that alcohol can ruin your life, but that fact is not a good argument for legalizing heroin.

It depends how you read it. If proponents of banning a drug (say, marijuana) argue that it should be banned because it is harmful and will threaten the fabric of society (or something), while more dangerous drugs are legally and readily available, and have failed to destroy society, parent's argument is reasonable.

Re: An Extortionist Has Been Making Life Hell for Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters

#80

Post by frozenport »

ceejayoz wrote: post #19
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #10

The operators of Silk Road were mafioso's that ordered hits on competitors and people they didn't like. The whole, "we're just a bunch of gentle hippie libertarians and the evil police state can't handle how chill and peaceful we are" is both factually and morally false. Please stop repeating it. http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-boss-ordered-6-assa... I also support 90% of the drug laws out there. The argumen…

> He's empowering others to destroy their lives So does Farmville.

Opiates build dependency that takes weeks to recover from, and 90% of heroin addicts relapse. Lets not kid ourselves.
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