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The Dark Web’s Top Drug Market, Evolution, Just Vanished

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81–90 of 115 posts

Re: The Dark Web’s Top Drug Market, Evolution, Just Vanished

#81

>While other sites followed the original Silk Road’s ethos of selling only victimless contraband While human sacrifices may not be a literal ingredient of drugs, calling it victimless ignores a whole lot of problems caused by drugs. Buying pot from your friend who grows it is victimless. But fueling any black market, even one that avoids identity theft, means you are supporting the marketplace that provides service t…

The drug cartels brutally murder thousands and commit many other crimes -- they are as brutal as ISIS in many ways -- they undermine and oppress entire countries and ruin large parts of American cities. Many organizations such as the Taliban and Hezbollah fund themselves via the drug trade. Some people boycott companies over political issues; how many of them still buy drugs? Every user I know, to whom I've mentioned…

See also: the diamond trade…

Re: The Dark Web’s Top Drug Market, Evolution, Just Vanished

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd presume they are posting to Reddit cia TOR, so I doubt subpoenaing Reddit would give much new information.

I thought about that, but you never know. There are other bits and pieces available...email, which might lead to a real IP via another subpoena if the person isn't careful, ad/tracking cookies, etc. I would guarantee you that some of these people aren't being that careful with their clearnet activities.

Would it be worth investing those kind of resources into tracking lower-tier sellers or buyers though?

Re: The Dark Web’s Top Drug Market, Evolution, Just Vanished

#84
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are tumbler services, no idea how well they work or how many are compromised but in theory it seems like it could work.

I'm surprised we haven't seen more theft and fraud with the tumblers. I used one out of curiosity about two years ago and the experience was basically to fill out a super shady looking webform, send the coins to the address it gives you, and then pray like hell that they come back out the other end.

The CoinJoin proposal[0] by Greg Maxwell provides transaction-history-tracing erasure capabilities. JoinMarket[1] is a market driven approach to incent CoinJoin mixing

[0]https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=279249.0 [1]https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=919116.0

Re: The Dark Web’s Top Drug Market, Evolution, Just Vanished

#85
post #76
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By that logic, there's a good chance you're a perpetrator of slavery due to the labor that put your computer and/or its constituent parts together...

For me, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that both you and the parent are right.

But it's easier to pretend that they are both wrong.

Re: The Dark Web’s Top Drug Market, Evolution, Just Vanished

#86
post #5

"You knew what I was when you picked me up," said the snake as it slithered away.

For those not getting the reference http://www.gballard.net/lifes_lessons/girl_rattlesnake/

While I understand the point of the fable, I don't get this version at all. Snakes don't rely on lures or deception; they sneak up on their small prey and try to keep out of the way of larger animals. I feel particularly well disposed towards rattlesnakes because they advertise that they don't want to be messed with. Rather like sharks, I feel like hey get a bad rap. Of course the author has rather obvious religious sensibilities, so perhaps that influences his perspective.

Re: The Dark Web’s Top Drug Market, Evolution, Just Vanished

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought about that, but you never know. There are other bits and pieces available...email, which might lead to a real IP via another subpoena if the person isn't careful, ad/tracking cookies, etc. I would guarantee you that some of these people aren't being that careful with their clearnet activities.

Would it be worth investing those kind of resources into tracking lower-tier sellers or buyers though?

Well....reading the thread, there are people claiming that drug gangs are going to kill people (both the owners of the site and people who are going to come up short paying their suppliers), at least one person seriously talking about suicide, and another saying that he has contact info for the owners. I can't say what resources they will put into it, but there are a ton of law enforcement red alerts and more than enough probable cause in that one thread to subpoena Reddit.

Re: The Dark Web’s Top Drug Market, Evolution, Just Vanished

#88

Not to add insult to injury, but these people posting on Reddit complaining about the money they have lost are opening themselves up to massive prison sentences. Reddit is a US site; all it takes to arrest everyone posting is to subpoena Reddit, get their IP's/emails/whatever, then raid their houses looking for drugs and whatever other contraband the police can find. Complaining publicly that you lost money on a site…

Is it illegal to use these sites? Surely, they would have to explicitly say that they purchased/sold drugs (or something else illegal) for a subpoena and later search warrant to be legal.

Re: The Dark Web’s Top Drug Market, Evolution, Just Vanished

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not one that you need to trust.

You need to trust either the buyer or the arbitrator actually. In this case some money might have been lost due to malicious buyers (and the absent arbitrator).

You have to trust the arbitrator to make fair decisions, but the arbitrator has no ability to steal the money.

The transaction simply moves funds between buyer and seller. If buyer and seller both sign the transaction, it completes without the arbitrator's involvement. If buyer and seller dispute, then the one who hopes to complete the transaction signs it and contacts the arbitrator, who will either sign, or not sign, but either way never gets possession of the funds.

Re: The Dark Web’s Top Drug Market, Evolution, Just Vanished

#90
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those not getting the reference http://www.gballard.net/lifes_lessons/girl_rattlesnake/

Or the Scorpion and the Frog [1] [1] http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?4&TheScorpionandth...

I had only ever heard the scorpion version, never the snake. I MUCH prefer the scorpion version because it focuses on the scorpion and not the frog.

The scorpion dooms himself by his own nature, where as the girl is merely trusting and punished for it.

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