Yep. BC will always be a curiosity rather than a genuine form of currency because of its instability. I know a person that cashed out a $75k vehicle to buy BC. This was at the height of its value. Now he can't buy a Ford Focus with the value it has.
Silkroad seized, DPR arrested
- Thread starter ronne
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Quineloe
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I know people who bought at the stock market for that much and couldn't even afford a hot wheels ford focus at this point with their stock options.
fanaskin
Well known agitator
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There is already 4 separate forms of virtual currency or payment methods with degrees of anonymity. The downfall of a lot of black market enterprises isn't usually distribution or manufacturing but rather a money trail as deep and wide as the grand canyon.
drtyrm
Lord Nagafen Raider
- 1,991
- 155
Here's a post from that same website about how DPR is definitely not going to jail:
Onward Libertarian Warriors!
Why the case against "Dread Pirate Roberts" will fall flat.
Emphasis by the original poster lol.
Onward Libertarian Warriors!
Why the case against "Dread Pirate Roberts" will fall flat.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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What are you talking about? People invest in currency all the time. There have been "legitimate" government issued currencies that inflated so quickly that prices in supermarkets had to be changed daily. Instability is not desirable, but it's hardly unique to bitcoins and bitcoin is certainly not the least stable currency historically.
Silk Road was a website dedicated to selling illegal goods and it should be no surprise to anyone that it was busted. That doesn't really say anything one way or the other about bitcoin. If bitcoin's only use is in criminal activity then its future is probably not bright, but this in no way invalidates the idea of virtual currency.
iannis
Musty Nester
- 31,351
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Work it through. When they invest in currency what are they actually investing in? How long does a government last with hyperinflation, what is the unavoidable outcome of that instability?
It's not personal brutul. If you still don't get it, lets revisit how great bittcoins are in about a year.
It's not personal brutul. If you still don't get it, lets revisit how great bittcoins are in about a year.
Jait
Molten Core Raider
- 5,035
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Isn't the Armory his site too? Pretty sure I read an article that he merged it into SR over a year ago.
edit: Yeah....
Silk Road Bitcoin Magazine
Azrayne
Irenicus did nothing wrong
- 2,161
- 786
Not surprised, it was fun while it lasted but I've been expecting this to happen for a while. I'm kind of curious about where things will go from here, the only thing more inevitable than the eventual end of a drug source is it's eventual replacement by a new one, given the age we live in and the fact that people now know how convenient purchasing drugs can be, imo it's only a matter of time until a replacement website comes along. The only question is what form it will take.
Was really shocked by how careless DPR is (although there's some speculation that the man they caught isn't the real DPR, or is only one of several people who shared the moniker). I always pictured him running SR out of some bunker in the siberian tundra:
Instead he's in the US, living with room mates, ordering off his own website and trying to hire hitmen? Can't figure out if the conspiracy crowd are right, or whether he's just an idiot.
Interesting article about Ulbricht, the supposed DPR:Meet Silk Roads Alleged Drug Lord: A 29-year-old California Geek
Was really shocked by how careless DPR is (although there's some speculation that the man they caught isn't the real DPR, or is only one of several people who shared the moniker). I always pictured him running SR out of some bunker in the siberian tundra:
Instead he's in the US, living with room mates, ordering off his own website and trying to hire hitmen? Can't figure out if the conspiracy crowd are right, or whether he's just an idiot.
Interesting article about Ulbricht, the supposed DPR:Meet Silk Roads Alleged Drug Lord: A 29-year-old California Geek
There's already blackmarket reloaded, sheep market and another one I cant think of. Haven't visited any of them to see if they're any good but i cant imagine them coming close to SR.
I'm sure it wont take long though for one of these sites to step up.
I'm sure it wont take long though for one of these sites to step up.
I should have said that within DAYS, he couldn't have afforded a Focus. But that isn't really here nor there in the scope of a conversation about virtual currencies and not publicly traded stocks.
I read that he started SR with someone else that cashed out. The other guy must have been a. Lot smarter.
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Whenever I read that a web site "generated" revenue of BTC, I shake my head because the writers (or the reporters, or the sources, or all of them) don't understand how the currency works. 9 million BTC may have flowed through the Silk Road at some point, but they weren't likely unique BTC, and they weren't worth the same amount of USD at different times. Such a useless assertion.
That said, absolutely not surprised about this. Why would anyone ever think that operating a site like this was going to be a good life move? Derp.
That said, absolutely not surprised about this. Why would anyone ever think that operating a site like this was going to be a good life move? Derp.
Azrayne
Irenicus did nothing wrong
- 2,161
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To be fair, I imagine he didn't expect it to take off the way it did. It was really Gawker crashing the party and bringing it to the attention of the media which made their take down inevitable, at that stage they were gonna end SR no matter what it took because they couldn't have the failure of their prohibitionist policies flaunted so brazenly. Whoever comes along and tries it next will have to keep it low key. My money is on a lot of the major vendors opening up their own invite-only websites with smaller customer bases, that way they can keep it quiet, the market will be spread out, hopefully draw less attention, and even if one gets shut down another will pop up to fulfill demand. That model basically already existed with online pharmacies and RC sites, they'll just have to shift it to invite only, beef up the privacy and replace the RC's with mainstream drugs. Only reason it hasn't happened already I'd imagine is that nobody wanted to be the first one to step up, flout the law and get their ass handed to them, but now they have safety in numbers with all of the people who set up shop on SR and need another outlet for their product, and with the powers that be having taking down SR, they can rest on their laurels a bit as long as whatever comes next doesn't draw too much mainstream attention. Think all the p2p sites that followed napster. The king is dead, long live the king.
fanaskin
Well known agitator
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Cybsled
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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One thing I kinda wonder about: Usually seized drug bust money gets absorbed into the agency. However, in this case, they have lots of BC. Will they just "destroy" the BC or try to convert them to cash or scratch their heads and go "wtf?" and let them rot on a harddrive somewhere.
I can only imagine the smart FBI agent transfers it all to himself and then "accidentally" formats that hard drive.
iannis
Musty Nester
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Nah, they'll destroy the main outlets until the only people bothering with them are drug cartels and delusional ideologues. Maybe they'll even dump all the confiscated buttcoins in a few months just to further shock the system. Who the fuck cares about the integrity of the system? And they'll probably keep doing it just for fun even after they reach that point. But it'll rate up there with food stamp and social security fraud as to how newsworthy it is.
Which is mostly all buttcoins are anyway. Just simple tax evasion. No one really cares if hyper freedom nerds use them to barter for holographic pokemon cards. Buying guns and heroin with them, and doing it so openly, that's something of a problem.
Which is mostly all buttcoins are anyway. Just simple tax evasion. No one really cares if hyper freedom nerds use them to barter for holographic pokemon cards. Buying guns and heroin with them, and doing it so openly, that's something of a problem.
Tripamang
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
- 5,538
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Whether or not people abandon the idea is going to come down to how many sellers and buyers end up getting caught in the aftermath. Assuming everyone passed personal information encrypted and the sellers were responsible and shredded/deleted it post use then very few people will get taken down with this. I really hope DP was smart enough to dispose of messages and old transaction information at specific intervals to reduce the amount of people exposed as well. I think you'll some arrests but only a small fraction of the total sellers and this will just fracture the users into other markets (which already exist).