Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: PsilocybinTendencies on August 17, 2012, 02:05 am
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Having recently rewatched the princess bride, I realized it's quite possible dpr plans to retire and pass on the title at some point.
I for one would like to express my interest in this role.
However I feel that kfmewkm and nomad bloodbath would be more suitable potential inheritors.
Limetless would also be a candidate if he willing to learn the computer shit (not that I'm any expert, but I'm capable and willing to learn what id need to know to fulfill the role if the opportunity ever presented itself).
Who would you nominate as the next dpr?
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That's been speculated on
http://allthingsvice.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/is-silk-roads-owner-jumping-ship/
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It's a shame that DigitalAlch is gone, aside from him I think that the poster "guru" would be the best choice by a good deal, he seems really smart to me and clearly knows a lot about computers, either that or one of the relatively silent admins.
edit: Although kmf and nomad would definitely be a good choice as well.
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hey lass, thanks for sharing that article. It was an interesting read. As I watch watching the movie I was having many similar thoughts.
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I think I'd be a good choise
I promise I'll run SR well :D
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why would you put the life of SR in the hands of someone over the internet...
obviously dpr is going to pass to someone he has known FOR A LONG TIME and IRL.. (IMO)
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why would you put the life of SR in the hands of someone over the internet...
obviously dpr is going to pass to someone he has known FOR A LONG TIME and IRL.. (IMO)
Because then it can be a 100% anonymous exchange of power.
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why would you put the life of SR in the hands of someone over the internet...
obviously dpr is going to pass to someone he has known FOR A LONG TIME and IRL.. (IMO)
Because then it can be a 100% anonymous exchange of power.
straight into LE's hands.
and they win the super bowl!!!!
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Let us say for hypothetical reasons this is true and DPR wasn't 1 person but simply a title that was passed on, if this was the case I would not accept it if offered because for 1, I am too hot-headed to do this and plus as both a vendor and a Mod that, and let's be real with this, has a fair amount of influence it would not be appropriate for me to take that sort of role. Also I am clueless with computers and I do not have either the patience or mindset to learn things like coding. My area is money and drugs, not I.T. If this was to happen I would personally like to see either Nomad Bloodbath, squidShepard or Indica.
However, I don't think this article is correct and I believe that DPR is a real individual because it makes much more sense logically and as such, long may his tenure, reign, captaincy or whatever you want to call it continue. :)
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why would you put the life of SR in the hands of someone over the internet...
obviously dpr is going to pass to someone he has known FOR A LONG TIME and IRL.. (IMO)
Because then it can be a 100% anonymous exchange of power.
straight into LE's hands.
and they win the super bowl!!!!
a fair point. maybe dpr could stay anonymous and the inheritor would have to reveal his identity to have a background check done.
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Yeah, it seemed more like an interesting topic for discussion than something that could be passed off for completely realistic, I liked having the opportunity to nominate posters as a way of thanking them for their time here.
Also, Lim, could you delete my thread about loans please? I can't figure out how.
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no one nominated LIM. >:|
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no one nominated LIM. >:|
Lol read the top mate.
And JSB yeah sure thing, shoot me the link and I'll kill the thread for you. :)
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I would honestly trust Pine with the fate of SR or you could give it to me and I'll secretly steal drugs from you guys.
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Here is the link: http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=36162.0
Oh, and you seem like you'd be a good DPR to me Lim, power seems to humble those who don't want it. In my opinion it is the irony of most political systems that, due to the fact that there are no positive motivations for a person to seek power in the first place, anyone willing to work hard for power is inevitably the least deserving to attain it.
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Pine is an excellent choice, can't believe I didn't think of her in the op.
Hey jsb, perhaps digitalAlch disappeared because he IS the new dpr... hmm...
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I would honestly trust Pine with the fate of SR or you could give it to me and I'll secretly steal drugs from you guys.
Yeah Pine would be cool too and also Shannon, he knows his shit inside out.
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How do you guys not realize the switch has already been made lol? The current DPR is the new guy, hence the new name and why they picked it. The original Silk Road guy is long gone rollin in the dough from whatever he sold the site for. You really think he didn't have some ridiculous offers from investors or gangs wanting to buy the site? He's not dumb. He cashed out and dipped while he still could. You only get caught when you get greedy.
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How do you guys not realize the switch has already been made lol? The current DPR is the new guy, hence the new name and why they picked it. The original Silk Road guy is long gone rollin in the dough from whatever he sold the site for. You really think he didn't have some ridiculous offers from investors or gangs wanting to buy the site? He's not dumb. He cashed out and dipped while he still could. You only get caught when you get greedy.
Who died and made you the oracle of truth lol?
In any case I don't really care of have much interest so long as SR is running smoothly which it surely seems to be. And thanks for the vote of confidence JSB but I really don't think I'd make a good DPR, my role in SR is more like crowd control and cracking skulls when they need to be cracked to get things done. This isn't what a leader does but what leaders need reliable people to do, which I hope is why I was given the Mod position and now Spam Buster. Also my business interests would create a conflict of interest which I could quite easily see hindering SR naturally thriving and evolving like it should.
Anyway this is a moot point, DPR is DPR, the Mods mod, the Vendors vend and I Spam bust and do a little of everything and thus the world keeps turning as it should and everyone is happy. :)
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How do you guys not realize the switch has already been made lol? The current DPR is the new guy, hence the new name and why they picked it. The original Silk Road guy is long gone rollin in the dough from whatever he sold the site for. You really think he didn't have some ridiculous offers from investors or gangs wanting to buy the site? He's not dumb. He cashed out and dipped while he still could. You only get caught when you get greedy.
I'm inclined to agree with this assessment as the most likely possibility. DPR used to post a lot now he all quiet. However, as others have pointed out, I posted this as a thought game just as much as a thread to speculate about dpr.
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How do you guys not realize the switch has already been made lol? The current DPR is the new guy, hence the new name and why they picked it. The original Silk Road guy is long gone rollin in the dough from whatever he sold the site for. You really think he didn't have some ridiculous offers from investors or gangs wanting to buy the site? He's not dumb. He cashed out and dipped while he still could. You only get caught when you get greedy.
Gar--take your own advice. You're a greedy motherfucker and one day, you're going to get caught. Or you're going to get hit by a car. Or something. Karma will get you.
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How do you guys not realize the switch has already been made lol? The current DPR is the new guy, hence the new name and why they picked it. The original Silk Road guy is long gone rollin in the dough from whatever he sold the site for. You really think he didn't have some ridiculous offers from investors or gangs wanting to buy the site? He's not dumb. He cashed out and dipped while he still could. You only get caught when you get greedy.
Gar--take your own advice. You're a greedy motherfucker and one day, you're going to get caught. Or you're going to get hit by a car. Or something. Karma will get you.
Not a fan of Gar then?
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Hi guys,
I wrote the blog post referenced above. It was all just cheeky speculation on my behalf (as noted in the disclaimer)
But this is a fun thread ;)
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Hi guys,
I wrote the blog post referenced above. It was all just cheeky speculation on my behalf (as noted in the disclaimer)
But this is a fun thread ;)
Hold on are you the Aussie tosser that has the "Think of the children attitude" or the one that actually has half a braincell to rub against the side of their skull to form a spark? I get confused because there is that many of you these days.
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Hi guys,
I wrote the blog post referenced above. It was all just cheeky speculation on my behalf (as noted in the disclaimer)
But this is a fun thread ;)
Hold on are you the Aussie tosser that has the "Think of the children attitude" or the one that actually has half a braincell to rub against the side of their skull to form a spark? I get confused because there is that many of you these days.
As a female, I don't think I can be deemed a 'tosser' technically :P
But I certainly don't have a "Won't somebody think of the chiiiildren?" attitude. I'm strongly pro-drug reform and I think my major Silk Road article ('The Drug's in the Mail') was a pretty balanced one. Even DPR wrote and told me he liked it :)
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Hi guys,
I wrote the blog post referenced above. It was all just cheeky speculation on my behalf (as noted in the disclaimer)
But this is a fun thread ;)
Hold on are you the Aussie tosser that has the "Think of the children attitude" or the one that actually has half a braincell to rub against the side of their skull to form a spark? I get confused because there is that many of you these days.
As a female, I don't think I can be deemed a 'tosser' technically :P
But I certainly don't have a "Won't somebody think of the chiiiildren?" attitude. I'm strongly pro-drug reform and I think my major Silk Road article ('The Drug's in the Mail') was a pretty balanced one. Even DPR wrote and told me he liked it :)
Everyone can masturbate, it's not a male only activity.
And yeah fair enough then in that case, you're alright. I just took a butchers through your stuff and you don't get lemon about this place and yeah you are fairly balanced. I just take a fairly arms-length view to journalists, in particular one's that admit that's what they are. Fair play though, you alright.
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Although having said that, it's about time that you journalists stopped chatting on about all the Blow and the Smack and mentioned some of the more interesting stuff available on SR **cough** my Armoured Land Rover **cough**. Anyone can traffic a few keys of Blow, you gotta have talent to put something the Ministry of Defense used to own anywhere in the world. Plus it's the most expensive thing on the Road.
Credit where credit is due! 8) Stop talking about the same rinse and repeat shit.
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Although I would argue that I *am* thinking of the children far more than the prohibitionists.
<shameless blog plug>
http://allthingsvice.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/why-politicians-and-law-enforcement-should-embrace-silk-road/
</shameless blog plug>
*edit* Actually /sell/ the damn thing and it might be newsworthy ;)
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Hah. Limet mentioned the land rover.
I declare this thread a success.
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Lmao, Lims shameless advertising attempt.
I'ma read these.
But I agree with Limetless. All I ever see is "A website where you can buy cocaine and methamphetamine and heroin."
Instead of "A website where people go to get cheap meds to control their depression/anxiety/insomnia/whathaveyou."
The road has many faces. Not all of them terrible and scary and mean.
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armored land rover. does that get shipped USPS?
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armored land rover. does that get shipped USPS?
No don't be silly lol, there are more than one way to ship things around the world you know. The idea that USPS is the only way to ship something is extremely blinkered.
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However I feel that kfmewkm -snip- would be more suitable potential inheritors.
The guy advocated bombing federal agents. There isn't anyone less suitable.
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However I feel that kfmewkm -snip- would be more suitable potential inheritors.
The guy advocated bombing federal agents. There isn't anyone less suitable.
Yes and his other qualities make him less than adequate.
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kfm supports child porn if I remember right. I think that would be the last thing this site needed was a guy leading it that has his daily wank to a per-pubescent boy in South East Asia.
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Err I'd assume the whole reason DPR would change owner ship is so that no one would know who it is, Limitless can't disappear for that exact reason, it would be too obvious :P
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However I feel that kfmewkm -snip- would be more suitable potential inheritors.
The guy advocated bombing federal agents. There isn't anyone less suitable.
Yes and his other qualities make him less than adequate.
I was offered to manage the SR server from very early on, and have repeatedly been given chances to code for it , but I was at the time too busy running my own forum (OVDB) and am currently too busy doing other shit as well :D
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however I do think that I would have an impressive resume considering I did hosting for pretty much half of the private drug forums to exist over the past decade
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i don't think i'd want you to run sr since you shut down almost every board you started as soon as it really got going :P
The next forum I start will not be possible for me to take down ;)
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Why would you have a forum that you can't take down?
If the feds got a hold of it and you couldn't take it down that would be a huge honeypot.
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i don't think i'd want you to run sr since you shut down almost every board you started as soon as it really got going :P
The next forum I start will not be possible for me to take down ;)
It will probably be a CP forum of some sort.
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Why would you have a forum that you can't take down?
If the feds got a hold of it and you couldn't take it down that would be a huge honeypot.
Imagine an application with a UI somewhere between pidgin and phpbb, where you can add buddies to a buddy list. You can then arrange the buddies into groups however you like. If you want to make a post you can signal which of the people/groups on your buddy list should be able to view it, and include a 'suggested sub-forum' to aide in organization. You can then select any subset of your buddy list and communicate with them as if it were a forum. When your correspondents get the message from you, they can send the reply to the same group of people you sent the original message to, or any subset of the original group , provided your buddy lists are synched (otherwise you can send replies only to people who you actually know about who are also members of the group of people the original message was sent to, or subsets of it). Encryption of all communications is of course managed by the application, forward messages mixed through a distributed mix net and then received through distributed private information retrieval in fixed 'refresh' intervals.
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i don't think i'd want you to run sr since you shut down almost every board you started as soon as it really got going :P
The next forum I start will not be possible for me to take down ;)
It will probably be a CP forum of some sort.
Hm I have no experience hosting CP although I imagine I could be more secure about it than most of them, although freedom hosting seems to be pretty solid. I really just am not interested in hosting a CP forum simply because I have absolutely no interest in CP , although it would be nice if someone made a jailbait site that didn't intermix photos of highschool girls flashing mirrors for their camera phones with toddlers being ass raped and otherwise tortured
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Imagine an application with a UI somewhere between pidgin and phpbb, where you can add buddies to a buddy list. You can then arrange the buddies into groups however you like. If you want to make a post you can signal which of the people/groups on your buddy list should be able to view it, and include a 'suggested sub-forum' to aide in organization. You can then select any subset of your buddy list and communicate with them as if it were a forum. When your correspondents get the message from you, they can send the reply to the same group of people you sent the original message to, or any subset of the original group , provided your buddy lists are synched (otherwise you can send replies only to people who you actually know about who are also members of the group of people the original message was sent to, or subsets of it). Encryption of all communications is of course managed by the application, forward messages mixed through a distributed mix net and then received through distributed private information retrieval in fixed 'refresh' intervals.
Sounds like Google Wave. I like that.
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You could continue to use GPG with it, although it uses ECDH and ECDSA from OpenSSL and is equal in strength to RSA-7,680
ETA I am not sure I work a lot on it and have about five thousand lines of code completed with probably just as many left to go.
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Without trying to sound sycophantic, I think DPR's great success has been his ideology. Silk Road as a technical exercise would have been inevitable in some form. The thing I love so much about the 'Road' (compared to, say, BMR) is DPR's leadership and the path he's chosen for this project. He's making a stand for something he passionately believes in, and is genuinely trying to improve this world in some way.
I'm so glad we have no CP, hitmen, stolen goods and other such harmful things on sale here. Silk Road could so easily have been all about the money, with someone else in charge. DPR does deserve every cent he makes though, he really has put his neck on the line for something he believes in. How many of us could claim to have done such a thing? DPR could be one of many people, in that case they all deserve some praise.
I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again... THANK YOU DPR (and all involved) for giving Silk Road to the world. Because whatever happens in the end, Silk Road has become an epoch-making and world changing event. With the added bonus that I've got my hands on some good shit along the way! ;D
EDIT: Just re-read this post and God does it sound sycophantic!
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Sounds great, does it work over Tor or how do you hide its comms?
Are there plans to integrate SR into it?
Will it have escrow service, will it have actual SR`style listings?
Or is it just a chat thing?
Do you have a name for it yet?
Will the source be released?
ETA I am not sure I work a lot on it and have about five thousand lines of code completed with probably just as many left to go.
works over Tor and additionally provides forward message anonymity via mixing and receiving via PIR. Has nothing to do with SR really. Will probably include blind mixing for bitcoins and an integrated way to send bitcoins / blinded tokens simply by selecting your buddy you wish to send them to, or a nice GUI widget such that every post of a person has a button that lets you click and send an amount of bitcoins / blinded tokens to the poster... escrow could easily be added to that but I will not be doing much work on that. I will probably run a blind mix for free provided people who find the system useful donate towards it, otherwise I will charge a percentage for blind mixing. SR could easily run his own blind mix as well. Of course it will be open source and I expect and hope that every line of code will be throughly analyzed. My goal is not to make an e-commerce platform but rather a decentralized encrypted mix/PIR forum and messaging system
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one minute you're telling us that nobody in the online drug scene, you included, has the skillz to pull it off, the next minute you're dickteasing us :|
Well I do not have the skills to design such a system but thankfully there are specs around for various components that can be fashioned into such a thing :P. Without that , I could not have found a way to make it work, trust me I tried. I had hoped to separate it from any ties to myself or illegal activity , but at the end of the day I started out wanting such a system for the drug scene and it is pretty impossible to separate myself from it at this point. I am confident that it will be used by enough people who need such a system, that it will not be restricted to the drug scene that uses it, and thus it will hopefully not have such a limited crowd with which to gain more benefits from mixing/PIR than Tor already can provide (after all if only drug scene uses it, it is suspicious in itself if it is used). Currently I have figured out how to fashion it together and I am satisfied that it will scale to forums and be secure if properly implemented, now I am just pounding away at it trying to get it finished and ready for auditing, the design is stable and extremely unlikely to change further (and is not related to any attempts I had before at this, or made by me for that matter, because I do not have such leet skills :( , thankfully I do not have to ) .
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one minute you're telling us that nobody in the online drug scene, you included, has the skillz to pull it off, the next minute you're dickteasing us :|
Well I do not have the skills to design such a system but thankfully there are specs around for various components that can be fashioned into such a thing :P. Without that , I could not have found a way to make it work, trust me I tried. I had hoped to separate it from any ties to myself or illegal activity , but at the end of the day I started out wanting such a system for the drug scene and it is pretty impossible to separate myself from it at this point. I am confident that it will be used by enough people who need such a system, that it will not be restricted to the drug scene that uses it, and thus it will hopefully not have such a limited crowd with which to gain more benefits from mixing/PIR than Tor already can provide (after all if only drug scene uses it, it is suspicious in itself if it is used). Currently I have figured out how to fashion it together and I am satisfied that it will scale to forums and be secure if properly implemented, now I am just pounding away at it trying to get it finished and ready for auditing, the design is stable and extremely unlikely to change further (and is not related to any attempts I had before at this, or made by me for that matter, because I do not have such leet skills :( , thankfully I do not have to ) .
like a fuckin' bawss.
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Those individuals who posses the required knowledge and resources to create & run a site like SR should be encouraged to go off on their own and create additional marketplaces for people to shop at. Provided they are as clean and user friendly as SR I would certainly consider buying from them if something should happen to SR.. The more the merrier I say..
Having recently rewatched the princess bride, I realized it's quite possible dpr plans to retire and pass on the title at some point.
I for one would like to express my interest in this role.
However I feel that kfmewkm and nomad bloodbath would be more suitable potential inheritors.
Limetless would also be a candidate if he willing to learn the computer shit (not that I'm any expert, but I'm capable and willing to learn what id need to know to fulfill the role if the opportunity ever presented itself).
Who would you nominate as the next dpr?
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There would be no point SR has the monopoly on this kind of illicit sales platform.
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With the degree of heat a marketplace such as SR is sure to eventually draw, I tend to disagree with your thinking. As much as I wish it were true, SR is not invincible.
There would be no point SR has the monopoly on this kind of illicit sales platform.
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With the degree of heat a marketplace such as SR is sure to eventually draw, I tend to disagree with your thinking. As much as I wish it were true, SR is not invincible.
There would be no point SR has the monopoly on this kind of illicit sales platform.
LOL you really think if SR get's shot down it wont just go straight back up again through a different server and have the reigns passed on to a different member of staff?
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With the degree of heat a marketplace such as SR is sure to eventually draw, I tend to disagree with your thinking. As much as I wish it were true, SR is not invincible.
There would be no point SR has the monopoly on this kind of illicit sales platform.
LOL you really think if SR get's shot down it wont just go straight back up again through a different server and have the reigns passed on to a different member of staff?
pewpew.
Limet FTW.
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Hi Eileen Ormsby, great article in The Age! Think we saw your pal Monica here a while ago. :)
Congratulations for being Australian and telling it how it is.
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On topic:
I'm inclined to disagree Lim, I think a single unified homogenous market is likely to come under direct attack at some indiscernible point in the future. A position of strength can simultaneously also be a single point of weakness, especially when you're trying to scale up rapidly and keep on top of everything at once.
The strengths of the black market have historically been:
- Diversity
- Rapid Innovation
- Early technology adoption
- Tax free (!)
Its weaknesses have historically been a lack of internal regulation due to the difficulties of enforcing contracts. Before now, most black market contracts were enforced by coercive means. SR has changed that, permanently.
Reputation Systems, Web of Trust, Escrow with (potentially) anonymous digital cash. Advanced cryptography changes that lack of internal black market regulation. The majority of people still don't grasp the implications of that, even on the Silk Road, it's just too big a change and there is actually nothing to compare it to in history that I can think of.
But.. we should not throw away the other leverage points that black markets have, just because we have a shiny new toy.
Right now SR is the mothership more or less. Which is great, because it has shown what can be done. In that sense it is mission accomplished from an agorist point of view.
I think however, that there is a great need for decentralization and market competition on the darknet. A variety of markets will specialize in certain product, tweak with different policies, even entirely different conceptions of economy, different technologies e.g. other cryptocurrencies, interception tags, elliptic curve cryptography, comms support systems like kmfkewn's SE project, Cables, even different Anonymity networks other than Tor and so on. I don't think there is a one size fits all market that will suit everybody. Perhaps there is now for the most part, but what about when the market is 10, 100, 1000 times larger? Because I don't think that is unrealistic. Growth has been exponential so far and I think there is a vast untapped reservoir of potential marketshare still to come, even for decades to come as a technology adept generation grows up. While I would expect SR to remain dominant with first mover advantage, this is unlikely be a permanent position. Diversity is good. We can learn from each others successes and mistakes.
What I want to see, which is quite independent (complementary even) of DPR's plans for ownership control, is a Darknet Confederation.
This Confederation essentially starts proper with SR. Competition does not have to be antagonistic, an alliance of business interests can be supportive on one level, and competitive on another. I say we play against each other, but look after our own. Besides, there is much specialization that has yet to occur, different businesses shall find different niches. To be honest, I think there is more than enough market share for all in any case, it's going to a very long time before there's a recession on the darknet due to economic factors.
Finally, we are capitalists. Capitalist are by default individualists, have strong opinions, fierce loyalties, and fight like cats and dogs. We thrive on new things, new frontiers, and most of all we have a severe allergic reaction to authority of any sort. Diversification is merely the natural outcome of such a querulous tribe. Contented souls rarely change the world after all.
So, while you are here, get networking with your fellow SRerians, cos we got a helluva lot of work to be doing, we are tasked with building the superstructure of the Black Market's Industrial Revolution. Your grandchildren will positively weep at the thought of having a fraction of the opportunities which are open to you right now.
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Yes I envision a small confederation of servers (maybe two dozen) run by trusted/known figures , not necessarily from any illegal scene at that (for a random example the tormail people may be interested in participating) forming into a larger system that benefits the users of all of the participating nodes and the node operators as well. The biggest concern I have is in maximizing the use of any such system though because you really are blending it with the set of people using a system and if it is only used by people in drug scene it wont be getting the true benefits it would if it had a diverse range of users.
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I would have to respectfully disagree Pine. If another market had emerged at the same time as Silk Road and been pushed by someone like DPR in the same way then yes, it is possible. However because no such market emerged and because of the amount of time and the amount of success SR has had it would now he impossible to compete really. Look at BMR which has really the same sort of structure as SR and even free accounts which should attract more vendors because it involves less start-up costs but yet it does not? Why? Because there is no need to go to another because SR has it all already.
Talking strictly non-private market-places here by the way, not the private scene.
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one minute you're telling us that nobody in the online drug scene, you included, has the skillz to pull it off, the next minute you're dickteasing us :|
Well I do not have the skills to design such a system but thankfully there are specs around for various components that can be fashioned into such a thing :P. Without that , I could not have found a way to make it work, trust me I tried. I had hoped to separate it from any ties to myself or illegal activity , but at the end of the day I started out wanting such a system for the drug scene and it is pretty impossible to separate myself from it at this point. I am confident that it will be used by enough people who need such a system, that it will not be restricted to the drug scene that uses it, and thus it will hopefully not have such a limited crowd with which to gain more benefits from mixing/PIR than Tor already can provide (after all if only drug scene uses it, it is suspicious in itself if it is used). Currently I have figured out how to fashion it together and I am satisfied that it will scale to forums and be secure if properly implemented, now I am just pounding away at it trying to get it finished and ready for auditing, the design is stable and extremely unlikely to change further (and is not related to any attempts I had before at this, or made by me for that matter, because I do not have such leet skills :( , thankfully I do not have to ) .
Keep up the good work kmfkewn, didn't even Voltarire himself say "The perfect is the enemy of the good"?
We'll induct you into the Cypherpunk Hall of Fame yet! (albeit I think this means you get to share a room with Julian Assange in an embassy) ;)
Also, I am most interested in looking at the source code, so whenever you have a draft ready for inspection I for one will definitely be reading it.
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Hi Eileen Ormsby, great article in The Age! Think we saw your pal Monica here a while ago. :)
Congratulations for being Australian and telling it how it is.
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On topic:
I'm inclined to disagree Lim, I think a single unified homogenous market is likely to come under direct attack at some indiscernible point in the future. A position of strength can simultaneously also be a single point of weakness, especially when you're trying to scale up rapidly and keep on top of everything at once.
The strengths of the black market have historically been:
- Diversity
- Rapid Innovation
- Early technology adoption
- Tax free (!)
Its weaknesses have historically been a lack of internal regulation due to the difficulties of enforcing contracts. Before now, most black market contracts were enforced by coercive means. SR has changed that, permanently.
Reputation Systems, Web of Trust, Escrow with (potentially) anonymous digital cash. Advanced cryptography changes that lack of internal black market regulation. The majority of people still don't grasp the implications of that, even on the Silk Road, it's just too big a change and there is actually nothing to compare it to in history that I can think of.
But.. we should not throw away the other leverage points that black markets have, just because we have a shiny new toy.
Right now SR is the mothership more or less. Which is great, because it has shown what can be done. In that sense it is mission accomplished from an agorist point of view.
I think however, that there is a great need for decentralization and market competition on the darknet. A variety of markets will specialize in certain product, tweak with different policies, even entirely different conceptions of economy, different technologies e.g. other cryptocurrencies, interception tags, elliptic curve cryptography, comms support systems like kmfkewn's SE project, Cables, even different Anonymity networks other than Tor and so on. I don't think there is a one size fits all market that will suit everybody. Perhaps there is now for the most part, but what about when the market is 10, 100, 1000 times larger? Because I don't think that is unrealistic. Growth has been exponential so far and I think there is a vast untapped reservoir of potential marketshare still to come, even for decades to come as a technology adept generation grows up. While I would expect SR to remain dominant with first mover advantage, this is unlikely be a permanent position. Diversity is good. We can learn from each others successes and mistakes.
What I want to see, which is quite independent (complementary even) of DPR's plans for ownership control, is a Darknet Confederation.
This Confederation essentially starts proper with SR. Competition does not have to be antagonistic, an alliance of business interests can be supportive on one level, and competitive on another. I say we play against each other, but look after our own. Besides, there is much specialization that has yet to occur, different businesses shall find different niches. To be honest, I think there is more than enough market share for all in any case, it's going to a very long time before there's a recession on the darknet due to economic factors.
Finally, we are capitalists. Capitalist are by default individualists, have strong opinions, fierce loyalties, and fight like cats and dogs. We thieve on new things, new frontiers, and most of all we have a severe allergic reaction to authority of any sort. Diversification is merely the natural outcome of such a querulous tribe. Contented souls rarely change the world after all.
So, while you are here, get networking with your fellow SRerians, cos we got a helluva lot of work to be doing, we are tasked with building the superstructure of the Black Market's Industrial Revolution. Your grandchildren will positively weep at the thought of having a fraction of the opportunities which are open to you right now.
+1
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I would have to respectfully disagree Pine. If another market had emerged at the same time as Silk Road and been pushed by someone like DPR in the same way then yes, it is possible. However because no such market emerged and because of the amount of time and the amount of success SR has had it would now he impossible to compete really. Look at BMR which has really the same sort of structure as SR and even free accounts which should attract more vendors because it involves less start-up costs but yet it does not? Why? Because there is no need to go to another because SR has it all already.
Talking strictly non-private market-places here by the way, not the private scene.
Lim, the people who are running the Black Market Reloaded would be out with forks if it were raining soup, so I wouldn't take too much from their failure to capitalize correctly.
I can think of at least ten different things that the Silk Road does not do, but which would have drastic impacts on business, scammer rates, interception rates, vendor quality and so forth, I just don't post them all because it would look presumptuous and I like to keep the best ideas to myself.
It's not just about competing with the business that SR currently transacts, there are entire spheres of potential development that SR doesn't address. This isn't the fault of SR, you would have to completely change everything, not an appealing proposition for an already successful business. But for new start-ups? Yes, absolutely.
One tiny example is that we could develop a new kind of market for the darknet, one that is relatively rare in the clearnet, but very useful for our purposes. That's a predication market. A subscription to the data from a predication market for vendors, a source of work for newcomers to SR and other markets. It could be quite remarkable. How many businesses effectively have the Oracle of Delphi working for them? Not even some intelligence agencies have that kind of risk assessment capability.
Anyway, let's just cordially agree to disagree. In any case, we are sure to see in the future what shall be the case, so we'll know sooner or later.
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Lol, yeah some new things are coming though. You might be quite surprised. :)
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I would have to respectfully disagree Pine. If another market had emerged at the same time as Silk Road and been pushed by someone like DPR in the same way then yes, it is possible. However because no such market emerged and because of the amount of time and the amount of success SR has had it would now he impossible to compete really. Look at BMR which has really the same sort of structure as SR and even free accounts which should attract more vendors because it involves less start-up costs but yet it does not? Why? Because there is no need to go to another because SR has it all already.
Talking strictly non-private market-places here by the way, not the private scene.
i agreee with this coz why would us buyers go elsewhere while sr is here coz if u careful u pretty much no chance of being scammed and every deales worth the gamble ,of course a good vendor can get u but only once and u will of used that good vendor enough times to make that mean nothing
but what if sr goes tommorow were do we go ,emails and shit would turn in to scam central
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Hi Eileen Ormsby, great article in The Age! Think we saw your pal Monica here a while ago. :)
Congratulations for being Australian and telling it how it is.
Thanks Pine. Yes, Monica is a lady who really knows her stuff and has a lot of respect to go with it.
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Hi Eileen Ormsby, great article in The Age! Think we saw your pal Monica here a while ago. :)
Congratulations for being Australian and telling it how it is.
Im guessing you are speaking of Monica Barrat pine, she has been a subtle voice of reason in the Australian HealthProfessionalsWhoMakeMediaAppearances scene for a while now. In which thread did she post?
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I'm with Pine on this one.
Ordering drugs online has yet to catch on. Once it really does, it's either going to go one of two directions.
It will be cracked down on, somehow, even if it means invading our privacy in the name of stopping terrorists (from an american perspective, other countries will justify it in their own unique ways). Which would suck.
Or Pine's dream will play out. The problem is that this service is reliant on the postal service.
At some point I think the postal service is going to no longer be an option, one way or the other. So we're going to have to adapt to that if we're going to keep this going, and create new marketplaces.
And the drug market is big enough to support multiple SRs. The question is just how is this going to play out when it becomes widespread?
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pine for vice president! :D