Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: sentience on August 08, 2012, 07:20 pm
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I haven't been here very long, but it seems that a lot of people are afraid of law enforcement taking down SR. I understand the fear, but I am optimistic. The reason? Economics. When adding up debt and unfunded liabilities, the US owes more money than the entire GDP of the planet. Things that can't go on forever don't, and the US government is rapidly spending its way in to oblivion. It is for this reason that I am hopeful about the future. After the collapse of the US government (and most others who are in debt), we entrepreneurs will have an enormous weight lifted off our shoulders, and we can continue to push humanity forward.
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Sorry, but I don't see how the economic situation / GDP will result in government paying less attention to SR. Currently SR is number one online drug market and it's getting more and more exposure by the press. I'm sure that it's very politically disadvantageous for the head of DEA to have SR running without problem.
So, I'm absolutely sure that DEA / FBI / whoever else are putting some big money behind the operation to bust SR. But instead of disrupting the service, of course they will want to catch as many people involved as possible. Not only they will shut down SR, they will also scare anyone else dealing drugs online shitless.
It's sad but SR is a big sore in US government's side and I'm pretty sure that it won't last for very long. With resources and money that they have it shouldn't be that hard to take it down. It's just a matter of time, planning, and execution.
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I'm really not sure about this one. I've had and posted opinions on either side of this topic, and I still haven't really landed on whether the US gov't. will be taking down SR or not. Keep in mind that I'm not really informed on the topic--most of what I think is based on my assumptions about LEAs and how they would target such a comprehensive network like SR, knowing that SR only accounts for a small fraction of illegal drugs in the US. That's the key issue though--taking down SR will only put a tiny dent in the overall drug trade.
Obviously, the DEA has a job to do, and taking down SR would fall right in line with their overall mission of stopping illicit drug trade. I can't simply ignore the fact that the DEA is probalby spending a good chunk of change to infiltrate and learn as much as possible about SR. But on the other hand, SR accounts for only a very *very* tiny fraction of illicit drugs in the US. Knowing that, I have to think that the DEA is only spending a portion of their budget that is proportional to the volume of drugs sold on SR, relative to the amount of drugs being sold through other outlets. I think cartels account for most of the illegal drugs in the States.
The last I heard is that SR moves about $24M a year. That's not a lot, and if they are able to take down SR, there will be many vendors who will continue to sell outside of SR. Many vendors have been selling online for a long time before SR even came around. So even if they do spend the time, money, and manpower to bring down SR, they will still have to deal with the multitude of vendors who will hardly be affected by that loss. This leads me to think that they might even want to leave the service in operation, only so they can target and surveil specific, high-volume vendors individually.
So I come back to my dilemma--yes they are trying to bring down SR, but how hard are they trying? Will they continue to try to bring the service down, if they haven't done it yet? Is there any incentive for them to leave the service in operation? It seems to me that if the international governments had the ability to track the SR operation, then they would have pounced on it by now.
But again, I try to avoid LE as much as possible, so I really can't claim to know what I'm talking about.
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Pine Prophesy: If SR gets taken down it'll be the definition of a Pyrrhic victory.
DPR has already won really. SR is a "small step for man, a great leap for mankind" moment in the drug war. No matter what happens, that remains the case. We might be using a different cryptocurrency, different anonymity network solutions, but we'll still be here in a decade's time and the darknet black market will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions.
When a new market comes into existence, such as this one, any attack on supply only produces price perturbations, but no overall average changes in volume over time. If SR goes down, they will be contending with 10 smaller SRs next year.
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Admittedly I'm not well educated on this topic, but isn't it pretty likely that shutting down SR is outside the jurisdiction of the DEA? If the SR servers aren't in US territory wouldn't they be theoretically limited to infiltrating SR to try to arrest vendors and buyers in the USA? I know the DEA does do quite a few foreign operations, mostly against the cartels in Mexico and against coca and opium poppy grow operations. I would think trying to take down SR's servers would fall under a different set of rules/legalities than burning coke fields. Not that they wouldn't or couldn't do it even if it's not legal for them to do so, just something I was thinking about.I'm sure most national governments would be glad to help take down the site if the servers are inside their borders anyway, so it's probably a moot point.
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Sorry, but I don't see how the economic situation / GDP will result in government paying less attention to SR. Currently SR is number one online drug market and it's getting more and more exposure by the press. I'm sure that it's very politically disadvantageous for the head of DEA to have SR running without problem.
No DEA agent will work for nothing. They need to feed their families. I have hope for SR because I feel that a collapse of the US government will come before the DEA can even make a move on it. And when the US government does collapse under its own weight I will exclaim, "Good riddance!"
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Sorry, but I don't see how the economic situation / GDP will result in government paying less attention to SR. Currently SR is number one online drug market and it's getting more and more exposure by the press. I'm sure that it's very politically disadvantageous for the head of DEA to have SR running without problem.
No DEA agent will work for nothing. They need to feed their families. I have hope for SR because I feel that a collapse of the US government will come before the DEA can even make a move on it. When the US government does collapse under its own weight I will exclaim, "Good riddance!"
While I do somewhat understand your sentiment, I don't think you've really thought through everything that you're saying here. First of all, if the US government did totally collapse as you seem to hope for, it's not like everything would suddenly be sugar and candycanes with free healthcare for all and all the drugs you can eat. There would either be widespread anarchy or another government would take it's place, neither of which are good options. A new government would most likely be run by the same people who are powerful now, or by whoever controlled the most military resources, and now there's no constitution to give the minimal protection it offers now. The people would get fucked however it played out.
On top of that, the global economy would totally collapse, currency would be pretty much worthless everywhere. I think the barter system would likely take the place of fiat money that we use now. You would have a hard enough time surviving and getting enough food, there's no way you'd be able to waste resources on getting drugs if you could even find any to buy. America is the top consumer of drugs in the world. When that demand is suddenly gone and money is worthless, there won't be a lot of people spending time and resources making much of anything in a lab or growing anything they can't eat. And this is all assuming that everything leading up to this point wasn't caused by or leading up to world war 3, in which case everybody is completely fucked.
I think the best thing we can hope for is a cultural revolution. The American government needs to start working for the people again and actually apply some logic and common sense instead of governing by greed and outdated judeo christian pseudomorality. I'm not holding my breath though, because so many people are sheep and won't think for themselves. Voting democrat or republican isn't going to change a thing, both parties are full of shit and are only interested in maintaining the status quo.
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Whoa, sorry for the wall o text. Stupid speed.
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Pine Prophesy: If SR gets taken down it'll be the definition of a Pyrrhic victory.
DPR has already won really. SR is a "small step for man, a great leap for mankind" moment in the drug war. No matter what happens, that remains the case. We might be using a different cryptocurrency, different anonymity network solutions, but we'll still be here in a decade's time and the darknet black market will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions.
When a new market comes into existence, such as this one, any attack on supply only produces price perturbations, but no overall average changes in volume over time. If SR goes down, they will be contending with 10 smaller SRs next year.
love it =)
Very well put. Couldn't have said it better myself.
So very, very true...
This community is certainly the tip of the spear that does more than just makes a statement it causes a debilitating structural blow to blindness and ignorance in this philisophical sphere.
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The cat and mouse game is as old as humanity itself. If history is any guide at some point the management of Silk Road will get complacent and will be busted and shut down by an over zealous government agency willing to spend more money busting them than flows through this site in a year.
Or maybe not? At the same time the clock is ticking and ticking fast. Myself I got a fairly bogus criminal charge over a decade ago when this whole lock everyone up mentality started. I simply posted bail and left the state! That same jurisdiction has now announced that certain crimes will no longer be prosecuted as they no longer have the economic resources to do so. A real DUH moment. If you keep locking up the productive members of society and your essential tax base eventually they flee and you are left with nothing but the people you slapped with bogus criminal charges trying to manufacture a tax base to get the economy moving. The area that slapped bogus charges on me now has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. Locking people up simply does not build an economy.
The thing that really makes the New World Order shit its pants is that no one can really control technology. The internet dumped so much tech on the general public that the powers that be will never be able to get on top of it and control it all. I have read stories about College kids wanting to send their own satellites into space and create their own independent tech networks. That really can't be more than a few years in the future.
So what hope does the New World Order have? Draconian measures? Shut down the internet? How will they trade their stocks and their ill gotten gains? How will they get their kidney they bought on the black market delivered on time to cure them of their life time of debauchery? How will they be able to rape the Earth of its resources without the steady flow of goods, the maintenance of roadways and a working population capable of maintaining the technological infrastructure?
Plumbers have a saying. Shit flows downhill and you get paid on Friday. When the power elites realize too late that their sewers aren't working and the plumbers and every other tradespeople are rioting in the streets it will already be too late. For them and for everyone.
As chaotic as times are yes I too have hope. The system must crumble so we can build a new one.
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Pine Prophesy: If SR gets taken down it'll be the definition of a Pyrrhic victory.
DPR has already won really. SR is a "small step for man, a great leap for mankind" moment in the drug war. No matter what happens, that remains the case. We might be using a different cryptocurrency, different anonymity network solutions, but we'll still be here in a decade's time and the darknet black market will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions.
When a new market comes into existence, such as this one, any attack on supply only produces price perturbations, but no overall average changes in volume over time. If SR goes down, they will be contending with 10 smaller SRs next year.
Exactly, I see it like the Megaupload fiasco. They took down Megaupload but then now you have so many more uploading sites taking its place, the same thing would happen if they somehow took SR down.
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No DEA agent will work for nothing. They need to feed their families. I have hope for SR because I feel that a collapse of the US government will come before the DEA can even make a move on it. And when the US government does collapse under its own weight I will exclaim, "Good riddance!"
Not gonna happen. Oil is traded almost entirely in US dollars. for any nation to purchase oil they must purchase the greenback first. This has and will continue to prop up the US economy for a while.
Interesting facts:
1) Saddam Hussein declared he would accept other currencies (like the Euro) not long before the 2003 war began.
2) Hugo Chavez declared Venezuela would accept other currencies not long before the coup that booted him out of power. He's back in power now as the result of the counter-coup. The first coup appeared to follow the standard CIA playbook for that sort of thing. Funny that.
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Admittedly I'm not well educated on this topic, but isn't it pretty likely that shutting down SR is outside the jurisdiction of the DEA? If the SR servers aren't in US territory wouldn't they be theoretically limited to infiltrating SR to try to arrest vendors and buyers in the USA? I know the DEA does do quite a few foreign operations, mostly against the cartels in Mexico and against coca and opium poppy grow operations. I would think trying to take down SR's servers would fall under a different set of rules/legalities than burning coke fields. Not that they wouldn't or couldn't do it even if it's not legal for them to do so, just something I was thinking about.I'm sure most national governments would be glad to help take down the site if the servers are inside their borders anyway, so it's probably a moot point.
I don't know man, US extradition treaties are pretty bullshit in my opinion. Just look at the whole Assange situation. Not going to elaborate much on this (Google if you're interested) but the point is it's not as simple as simply being outside the country to be safe from their laws.
If SR ever did get busted I would be very interested to see how the court case plays out. I mean if DPR isn't selling anything himself, just providing a market place, has he really broken any laws? If yes, wouldn't the same apply to someone running a Sunday market at the local show grounds if someone decides to set up shop selling illegal goods there? The precedent such a case sets would be fascinating. Terrifying for those who value personal freedoms, but fascinating none the less.
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No DEA agent will work for nothing. They need to feed their families. I have hope for SR because I feel that a collapse of the US government will come before the DEA can even make a move on it. And when the US government does collapse under its own weight I will exclaim, "Good riddance!"
Not gonna happen. Oil is traded almost entirely in US dollars. for any nation to purchase oil they must purchase the greenback first. This has and will continue to prop up the US economy for a while.
The dollar's hegemony is quickly waning. I think China will dump it. When they do, it will set a precedent for others to do the same.
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Let's be honest, as we read these forums someone is being shuttled thru the jail system for possession of a dime bag or an oxy pill, will burden you guys with the cost of a public defender, and take up space in the local jail. Wasteful spending is an unknown term for the war on drugs.
Of course with all the face to face illegal transactions in the world, the dea has its hands full with easier targets than the silk road.
But in referring back to my second sentence, you must not underestimate your enemy no matter how illogical the fight. Often times i take these threads as reassurance in the longevity of the silk road due to it not being logical on many levels to shut us down. Although, there isn't a whole lot of logic at work in government in general, it's best to keep on your toes and be prepared for the worst.
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Admittedly I'm not well educated on this topic, but isn't it pretty likely that shutting down SR is outside the jurisdiction of the DEA? If the SR servers aren't in US territory wouldn't they be theoretically limited to infiltrating SR to try to arrest vendors and buyers in the USA? I know the DEA does do quite a few foreign operations, mostly against the cartels in Mexico and against coca and opium poppy grow operations. I would think trying to take down SR's servers would fall under a different set of rules/legalities than burning coke fields. Not that they wouldn't or couldn't do it even if it's not legal for them to do so, just something I was thinking about.I'm sure most national governments would be glad to help take down the site if the servers are inside their borders anyway, so it's probably a moot point.
I don't know man, US extradition treaties are pretty bullshit in my opinion. Just look at the whole Assange situation. Not going to elaborate much on this (Google if you're interested) but the point is it's not as simple as simply being outside the country to be safe from their laws.
If SR ever did get busted I would be very interested to see how the court case plays out. I mean if DPR isn't selling anything himself, just providing a market place, has he really broken any laws? If yes, wouldn't the same apply to someone running a Sunday market at the local show grounds if someone decides to set up shop selling illegal goods there? The precedent such a case sets would be fascinating. Terrifying for those who value personal freedoms, but fascinating none the less.
Oh I have no doubt that little things like jurisdiction and legality would be overlooked or ignored if the DEA or any other alphabet agency found the server location and put shutting the site down on the agenda. With the way SR works though, I wonder if it would actually be DEA pulling the plug, or whichever agency handles cyber crime. The site and it's owners don't actually sell drugs, so I'm thinjing the actual charges would be conspiracy or some such. Actually, seems somewhat similar to the situation with the Pirate Bay to me. As far as extradition laws, I'm not sure if that would even be an issue. I can't think of a country off hand that wouldn't happily charge and imprison DPR and impose some massive fines.
Huh, speaking of the pirate bay, maybe DPR should look into something they tried back in '07 if he's got the funds for it. They were trying to buy the micronation of Sealand so they could host their servers there. I think it was going to be around 600k, but the guy that runs the place backed out because he didn't want to be associated with them. Interesting place actually, it was a sea fort in WW2. Now it's in the gray area of being a country, with a population of 27 people on a 6000 square foot island. Back in the 70's some guys ran a pirate radio station there, so this British guy hired some mercenaries with speed boats, kicked out the people with the radio station, and declared himself the ruler. If Lim can scare up an armored boat we could probably just invade the place and take over, I'm sure the Americans can supply enough assault rifles.
The SR nation, an island paradise... I like that.
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Yano why I have hope? Peanut butter. Plain and simple peanut butter.
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Whoa whoa.... Are we talking crunchy, or smooth?
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Smooth in a ciabatta, bottom half Philadelphia and top half smooth peanut butter. It's the one.
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OP i dont think the US is gonna suddenly collapse like everyone seems to love predicting, sure they have made some mistakes allowing much different cultural superpowers with a much stronger work ethnic (and alot less respect for human rights but its a fight for survival in such competitive markets) to thrive and come close to catching up , if. But the US hasnt been the strongest nation in the world for 200 odd years for no reason and it might not be the worst position they have ever been in (someone with a knowledge of US history might be able to verify this). Plus they still have alot of manipulation over world markets (where the "wars" are fought these days)
Also, I have a feeling the US government/alphabet mafia may not really care that much about this site, Im sure some lower ranking "agents" might but they just probably get a grin and a tap on the shoulder and told to do the best they can and put in a corner without much support. And who says it is located in the US. you seriously think someone as technology and business savvy, not to mention the capital he/they earn, would really reside in a country with the harshest drug laws of the developed world? For all we know there may be a juristiction they have found that places no responsibility of what is published on a website they own. I know plenty of mainstream websites have argued this and im sure thats why something as well known and open as topix hasnt been shutdown and i highly doubt the owner of that site will be prosecuted when (if ever) that place gets shut down.
Also most computer experts brought up on a diet of interwebz are preety fucking liberal i imagine, spending time on 4chan and whatnpt and the internets general attitude of anti-censorship and anonymity, i dont think theyown a would be in a hurry to help shutdown a website that is doing no harm and preety much stands for everything they have been fed on.
/end rant
feel free to correct if i am mistaken about any of that
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Mr Cousins I do believe you are correct and I too doubt that the Alphabet Mafias of the U.S or U.K care very much about SR in the grand scheme of things. I mean, if the financial predictions circulating in the latest bunch of articles are to be believed this place does around $40Mil a year in transactions, now given that one fairly modest sized Cocaine shipment can be quite easily worth $40Mil then really economically SR is gunna be fairly far down their list in terms of threat level. What makes SR important and significant is not the amount of cheddar it makes though, it's significance is derived from the fact that nobody can do bugger all about it and the system proves drugs can be sold and distributed safely for both the seller and user.
One thing though Mr Cousins..... America wasn't No 1 until 1945 really, U.K was captain awesome till then. :)
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When it be my turn (Australia) for captain planet :(. Oh wait a minute, when all you cunts run out of fossil fuels and we control close to 50% of the worlds uranium supply. Oh shit, China and India are already buying it all up and buying our mining companys. Can I do anything right :(.
Still everyone seems to think we are the best country in the world to live in, I just wanna get out and experience some real fucking culture and appropiate drug prices and women and a sport everyone cares about and people who dont talk from the back of their throat, and liberal governments ( our "liberal party" is actually conservative, go figure). Ever been here lim? (not profiling it would probably narrow you down to say....half the UK)
oh yeah and 40mil of drugs in Australia you could probably fit in a a large parcel
P.S. if shannon and kmfewm can get very close to SR im sure so can a well funded agency like <insert random letters> could have to be able to after a year and abit. this supports my theory that they:
A. dont give a fuck (that last scene in "lord of war" comes to mind to anyone who has seen it)
B. the gurus,pine kmfkewm and shannons ( and im sure theres much better somewhe re) out there wont work for the FBI or beleive in what o this place stands for too much to put in genuine effort.
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On a side note how many of you believe that DPR is a single person who can be arrested/extradited/otherwised treated as an autonomous legal individual? Have any of you read "The Princess Bride?" good film even better book. Certainly if I was going to run a site such as this I think I'd like to have a fictional figurehead for my enemies to waste time looking for.
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When it be my turn (Australia) for captain planet :(. Oh wait a minute, when all you cunts run out of fossil fuels and we control close to 50% of the worlds uranium supply. Oh shit, China and India are already buying it all up and buying our mining companys. Can I do anything right :(.
Still everyone seems to think we are the best country in the world to live in, I just wanna get out and experience some real fucking culture and appropiate drug prices and women and a sport everyone cares about and people who dont talk from the back of their throat, and liberal governments ( our "liberal party" is actually conservative, go figure). Ever been here lim? (not profiling it would probably narrow you down to say....half the UK)
oh yeah and 40mil of drugs in Australia you could probably fit in a a large parcel
P.S. if shannon and kmfewm can get very close to SR im sure so can a well funded agency like <insert random letters> could have to be able to after a year and abit. this supports my theory that they:
A. dont give a fuck (that last scene in "lord of war" comes to mind to anyone who has seen it)
B. the gurus,pine kmfkewm and shannons ( and im sure theres much better somewhe re) out there wont work for the FBI or beleive in what o this place stands for too much to put in genuine effort.
I don't mind talking about where I have visited mate and yeah I have been to both Australia and New Zealand. I like your country barring the silly attitude towards drugs but I couldn't live there permanently in the same way I couldn't live in America but enjoyed my visits there. I just like European culture far too much. :)
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meh our drug attitudes are actually preety liberal and rightly so seeming we have the highest per-capita illict drug use in the world. And its preety fucking open hereto the extent where you will go out meet a random and usually the conversation starter after "can i bum a durrie mayte"is what they are on followed by you then sharing what cocktail you have taken tonight. Infact the cops have given up any sort of public campaign telling us not to take drugs and just decided to tell us not to drive on drugs instead ;). Weve known a few swedes to come here (we thought sweden was a preety fucking liberal country) and just be amazed and go nuts because of how open and casual the drug use that back home is frowned upon. Weird world
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Admittedly I'm not well educated on this topic, but isn't it pretty likely that shutting down SR is outside the jurisdiction of the DEA? If the SR servers aren't in US territory wouldn't they be theoretically limited to infiltrating SR to try to arrest vendors and buyers in the USA? I know the DEA does do quite a few foreign operations, mostly against the cartels in Mexico and against coca and opium poppy grow operations. I would think trying to take down SR's servers would fall under a different set of rules/legalities than burning coke fields. Not that they wouldn't or couldn't do it even if it's not legal for them to do so, just something I was thinking about.I'm sure most national governments would be glad to help take down the site if the servers are inside their borders anyway, so it's probably a moot point.
seriously - do u know of any part of the world the U.S. Gov. don't have their grubby little dick feelers into?
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As my anal cavity exists in the world it can therefore be counted as part of it. As such I am saying that America doesn't have it'd cock or fingers in my arse, there is one place they are not. :)
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As my anal cavity exists in the world it can therefore be counted as part of it. As such I am saying that America doesn't have it'd cock or fingers in my arse, there is one place they are not. :)
However, if we think you have oil or WMDs up there, you better lube up because we'll be there in an instant.
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Sorry, but I don't see how the economic situation / GDP will result in government paying less attention to SR. Currently SR is number one online drug market and it's getting more and more exposure by the press. I'm sure that it's very politically disadvantageous for the head of DEA to have SR running without problem.
So, I'm absolutely sure that DEA / FBI / whoever else are putting some big money behind the operation to bust SR. But instead of disrupting the service, of course they will want to catch as many people involved as possible. Not only they will shut down SR, they will also scare anyone else dealing drugs online shitless.
It's sad but SR is a big sore in US government's side and I'm pretty sure that it won't last for very long. With resources and money that they have it shouldn't be that hard to take it down. It's just a matter of time, planning, and execution.
My view is this:
TFM lasted 6 fuckin years doing business through paypal and WU. It's like the unit multiplier math you used to do in middle school
1 TFM Busted/6 years x 1SR/1000 TFMs (SR is easily 1000x better/safer than TFM, just a rough estimate tho of course) = 1SR/6000yrs
So we have about 6000 years left imo.
Or at least 5-10. That'd be good enough for me.
Sides once/if SR goes down another similar/better site will have popped up, or we could just all pour over into BMR (whose sole reason for being a desolate wasteland of scammers and thieves is because no one has any reason to go there when they could just go to SR).
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On a side note how many of you believe that DPR is a single person who can be arrested/extradited/otherwised treated as an autonomous legal individual? Have any of you read "The Princess Bride?" good film even better book. Certainly if I was going to run a site such as this I think I'd like to have a fictional figurehead for my enemies to waste time looking for.
Absolutely! I cant believe noone else has picked up on this yet either. in the princess bride the "Dread Pirate Roberts" is like the dalai lama in a sense in that when that one is gone, a new dalai lama/DPR takes there place. I think its probably meant as a metaephor that when he/them do get taken down a new version of SR will emerge and the DPR will still exist although it will be another human controlling him, its the same spirit.
Im also a member of a clearnet site (forum on other types of illegal drugs that are sometimes perscribed but illegally used the world over) where DPR is the admin, and going by writing style and theme of this website, It could very likely be the same one.
BC
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Not gonna happen. Oil is traded almost entirely in US dollars. for any nation to purchase oil they must purchase the greenback first. This has and will continue to prop up the US economy for a while.
Interesting facts:
1) Saddam Hussein declared he would accept other currencies (like the Euro) not long before the 2003 war began.
2) Hugo Chavez declared Venezuela would accept other currencies not long before the coup that booted him out of power. He's back in power now as the result of the counter-coup. The first coup appeared to follow the standard CIA playbook for that sort of thing. Funny that.
Don't forget Qadaffi. Same exact pattern.
But it's not only about the US. China has spent $75 billion on oil acquisitions in the past five years. It had $20 billion in infrastructure and oil development projects in Libya too, before the war. They're snatching up prospects throughout Africa, and with the US failing to build their oil pipeline through Canada, China is jumping in on that too, making Canadian oil deals. Iran is a major seller to China as well.
Throwin' some information out there
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Sorry, but I don't see how the economic situation / GDP will result in government paying less attention to SR. Currently SR is number one online drug market and it's getting more and more exposure by the press. I'm sure that it's very politically disadvantageous for the head of DEA to have SR running without problem.
So, I'm absolutely sure that DEA / FBI / whoever else are putting some big money behind the operation to bust SR. But instead of disrupting the service, of course they will want to catch as many people involved as possible. Not only they will shut down SR, they will also scare anyone else dealing drugs online shitless.
It's sad but SR is a big sore in US government's side and I'm pretty sure that it won't last for very long. With resources and money that they have it shouldn't be that hard to take it down. It's just a matter of time, planning, and execution.
My view is this:
TFM lasted 6 fuckin years doing business through paypal and WU. It's like the unit multiplier math you used to do in middle school
1 TFM Busted/6 years x 1SR/1000 TFMs (SR is easily 1000x better/safer than TFM, just a rough estimate tho of course) = 1SR/6000yrs
So we have about 6000 years left imo.
Or at least 5-10. That'd be good enough for me.
Sides once/if SR goes down another similar/better site will have popped up, or we could just all pour over into BMR (whose sole reason for being a desolate wasteland of scammers and thieves is because no one has any reason to go there when they could just go to SR).
you really think it took them 6 years to take down TFN? They could have taken taken it down 6 days after they found out about it. The Farmers market was allowed to exist. look at fucking topix for fucks sake. I could take that down by finding which ever faggot is their top seller and then receiving one of his easily traceable payment methods (cash in the mail anyone) and then tipping off his local sergeant. repeat until everyones gone and topix has to go back to whatever else the fuck they do or close.
We arae still here because we are allowed to exist simple as that. we dont make a fucking dent in the global drug markets and no parents groups knwo we exist (hell my computer nerd drug loving mates dont even know we exist). When we become an inconvenience, (election year probably) we will be shutdown and another market thats not plastered all over the papers will be up in a few days to a a month. One thing silk road has is how well organised things are and how the commnity has come together to embrace and encourage the cause, encryption, whatever else to improve fucking drug dealing and making it a fuckload more pleasent then it is IRL. This idea will be copied improved and the community ideals will be passed on to whoever comes along next. The horse has truly, already bolted
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Not gonna happen. Oil is traded almost entirely in US dollars. for any nation to purchase oil they must purchase the greenback first. This has and will continue to prop up the US economy for a while.
Interesting facts:
1) Saddam Hussein declared he would accept other currencies (like the Euro) not long before the 2003 war began.
2) Hugo Chavez declared Venezuela would accept other currencies not long before the coup that booted him out of power. He's back in power now as the result of the counter-coup. The first coup appeared to follow the standard CIA playbook for that sort of thing. Funny that.
Don't forget Qadaffi. Same exact pattern.
But it's not only about the US. China has spent $75 billion on oil acquisitions in the past five years. It had $20 billion in infrastructure and oil development projects in Libya too, before the war. They're snatching up prospects throughout Africa, and with the US failing to build their oil pipeline through Canada, China is jumping in on that too, making Canadian oil deals. Iran is a major seller to China as well.
Throwin' some information out there
Yep. Once you know what the CIA standard playbook is certain aspects of world politics get so much more entertaining to watch. The must've been pissed when Chavez pulled off that successful counter-coup.