Silk Road forums

is it at all possible that this exploit has enabled LE to seize control of established vendor accounts and utilize them to entrap buyers?

(and more are to come as BlueGiraffe motherfucker leaked ALL customer addresses from ALL deals he ever done to the police.)

#2 -- Similarly, showing buyer weight in feedback is only useful to a buyer if the heavy-weight is being honest.  But their position of power can also have the opposite effect intended.  For example, when other buyers are able to see buyer weight, this gives the vendor an incentive to treat the heavy-weight in a special manner (or worse, bribe them).  This problem would worsen if you implementing a way to sort the feedback based on buyer weight as well.

Heres the mailman saying nobody gives a shit,  wheres RXKing he will love this. 

Eh. I've always browsed on these forums and wanted to actively engage in them; though the whole 50 posts thing (while I understand why) always seemed to keep me away. However, like many others paranoid with the Road being down after FreedomHosting being toppled, I went to the thread "is the road down?" just to browse a bit. After chuckling, I stumbled upon the little debate between StExo and RxKing and felt completely mystified that a long-time vendor could be so adamant against the use of PGP. Astor and StExo did a decent job proving you wrong, but I'd like to weigh in my 2 cents in my first post.

So I'd certainly welcome any debate if either of you happen to stumble upon the Newbie Discussion and join in.

But let me examine a few of your quotes RxKing...

"Now what happens when that vendor that uses PGP decides to write every address down and save them? How did your pgp help you there? It did not!!! It did nothing for you...pgp gives buyers a false sense of security and offers no true security. If you want REAL security as a buyer, then you should only deal with a vendor that would never do something so stupid(as to keep anything at all ever) a vendor that has proven over a long period of time that they should be trusted, and a vendor that knows what the fuck he is doing."

     I certainly agree with this sentiment. You certainly have to hope that the vendor knows what they're doing. It's like you said, what happens if they find a written address or a package with your address on it before they get to the post office (it is illegal to open mail though, but LE blows)? But I would argue that a vendor who uses PGP is simply using an EXTRA layer of easy-to-learn protection and doesn't show some unnecessary stubbornness, so I feel as though they should be smart enough to delete any information and take necessary precautions. Unfortunately, when we don't advocate use of PGP there are dumb vendors that will then advocate privnote or other means...While I will of course never use such means, dumb and new buyers will fall prey to this. We could accept the mentality that dumb people get burned, but veterans should be looking out for new members of the road...The more we have using PGP and tor, the safer I feel we become.
     However, this is all based on your fundamental belief that the Silk Road is not compromised. You say right before that:

"I for one do not think SR will get compromised. And if I am wrong, and it is, then I do not think an address means anything. In fact I KNOW it does not. Not one person would ever get prosecuted or have anything happen to them based on an address found somewhere on the darknet."

    But what about an address attached to a person who's transaction history shows THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of dollars?  Would it be smart for their address to be open anywhere if the silkroad is compromised, especially for a smaller than usual purchase? If the vendor somehow were compromised... say he falls for a phishing scam or somehow LE got a hold of their user (hey, its happened)? Sure your argument is that the vendor fucked up but having one password is not the same thing as having two. He could've left the road logged in on his computer when DEA busted down his door and put the barrel to his face. They still can't get that next password for the PGP outta him thanks to our 5th amendment. As for the road being compromised... Here's another quote from you:

"I am sure I have mailed packages to the DEA. As long as the finalize fast and do not ask stupid questions,I am fine with it. I actually treat every single package as if it is going to the DEA or FBI."

     If that's how you feel, is it not entirely possible then that the SilkRoad is a giant honeypot or run by LE? Sure it sounds pretty paranoid, but about as paranoid as treating every package as though its going to the DEA. In this fucked up War on Drugs, you'd be surprised by the attempts that LE takes. They could have addresses of the people buying kilos of whatever and having them shipped over seas to whatever country because that text is in the open instead of hidden. You bust a couple people here and there, and you have enough money to keep getting congressional appropriations to fight the very thing you're behind...and viola probably another promotion for popping the guy that got 10 kilos of mdma from overseas; besides you can't get much higher on the food chain without going to the country that sent it, so you just take down the big sharks in your own country. In addition you also consider that maybe you do some shit like this:

"I can mail someone a package and make it come from Boston when I am in Los Angele's. Again, this is not about me and how I ship or what to do or not do."

    Sure this may not be what you do...but if you do something even remotely like this, you're passing off my address information to someone else, and its very well (well actually guaranteed given your history) that you didnt encrypt my information before you sent it along so that information is potentially exposed once again. Thanks dickhead!

     I do hope you realize that an address exposed only once on the darknet or somewhere else can mean your downfall. Addresses can be saved and crosschecked with ANY MAIL. PERIOD. Ever heard of the Mail Isolation and Tracking program? Started in 2001 after the Anthrax scares (and certainly scary in the pre-PRISM era), USPS takes a picture of EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF MAIL. Flagged addresses can certainly be examined with a more scrupulous eye if they think you're high on that food chain. Likewise, over time, they CAN and WILL figure out patterns; hence why StExo says you can be found. Maybe he can't personally, but if someone really wants to, they probably can. And I'd be more than happy my address isn't anywhere near your computer or residence.
    Sure this is all a level of encryption based on paranoia and highly unlikely scenarious; but paranoia is a good thing and keeps you safe. MuhFuckers have families and priors and shit.
     AND THERE IS NOT A SINGLE PLACE YOU CAN FIND FAULT IN THE TECHNOLOGY OF PGP; it helps reduce human error. And its so simple. I honestly learned it and set-up my private and public key in about the same amount of time it took to disable scripts and fuck with my settings every time I download a new bundle for tor. So to sit here and deem it "WORTHLESS" or that it "adds nothing"... But that is a blatant lie when it works wonders as an added level of protection which you cannot discount. Its ridiculously reckless that you can have the title of 'hero member' just because you may post so often when you're doing this community a huge disservice. People might actually listen to your bullshit.
     PGP is not a second fucking condom; its the birth control, in addition. It's not some second layer that puts you at more risk of the whole thing blowing up. Sure it can have its flaws the same as clear text, but generally its proven safer and more effective.
     The only reason you could possibly advocate against using extra protection is that you lack the modicum of intelligence necessary to understand it (and its necessity) or implement it; and you should be prevented from participating in this community when you encourage others to act as reckless as yourself.

Quote from: RxKing on August 10, 2013, 03:08 am

This has been addressed many a time in the forums.

SR does not administer a fee for bitcoin vendors because you can not use the escrow system.

SR in fact, discourages anyone from buying coin through a silk road vendor.

Nice 2 hear from you RX....It's me Tony..Just wanted 2 say Hi buddy.