zlacker

>>uptown+(OP)
That seems way too harsh to me. I have strong opinions on the US War on Drugs and it's failure to meaningful deal with drug use/abuse in the USA. And I feel even worse about how it's spilling out into the rest of the world as we go "global" with everything.

I can't say I know every detail of the case but I don't recall anyone getting killed or even hurt by Mr. Ulbricht so in my mind the punishment does not fit the crime. IMHO the death penalty should be off the table completely (go Nebraska!) and life in prison reserved for only violent offenders. You can argue that he enabled people to harm themselves but I think that's stretching it. If people want to take drugs, even take too much drugs their going to get it somewhere. If drugs were legal and treatment of abuse the focus instead of punishment Silk Road wouldn't have existed in the first place.

>>smhend+v1
Indeed. This is an exemplary jail sentence: in theory it should be possible to create a perfect dark market, and there is nothing that the FBI can do about it, so they have to implant fear to try to reduce the amount of people who are willing to create the next SR...

>>pera+l5
I would say that theory would only stand if you lived in Russia, were politically connected, never left Russian territories, and never allowed any sales to CIS/Russian territories. Note the part about being politically connected because the Russian militsia (or w/e they are called these days) will simply be tipped off by the FBI to your whereabouts and go shake you down for hefty taxes. Even if two countries officially don't have any extradition or other MLAT type treaties doesn't mean there isn't low level negotiation between law enforcement, or straight up bribes by the FBI to have local PD shut you down. Maybe you could move to Crimea or Donetsk Republic and get NAF to be your personal bodyguards.

I think it's pretty much impossible to run that kind of a global darkmarket otherwise. Even if you were the world's most experienced sysadmin and could lock down your server(s) (and NSA/FBI httpd/nginx/apache 0day doesn't apply) you still have to worry about Bitcoin laundering and many other issues, you'd have to run around like Jason Bourne everyday and nobody can sustain that discipline without making mistakes. You only have to make one mistake and you're joining Ross at ADX Florence (where he's likely going, nobody convicted of the "Kingpin" charge ends up anywhere else besides supermax prisons)

>>pakled+Yc
I think that it might be possible to set up a dark market (and even then, it's unlikely). The problem is making money off of it. You have to spend the money somewhere, after all. And unlike cash, which is very difficult to trace, spending Bitcoins can be tracked. "Gee, the wallet that everyone pays money to is spending it on X, Y, and Z! I wonder whom that's for!"

>>omegah+7f
Well you could create a new wallet for each transaction that is still controlled by the owner right ?

>>jhildi+zF
That's not enough, because the blockchain contains the transaction history. It is possible to anonymize Bitcoins via Tor. You would anonymously create many wallets, and transfer through mixing services. Then, using https://blockchain.info/, you would check for taint among your adddresses.

However, that would not be so easy for hundreds or thousands of Bitcoins. It's hard for a snake to discreetly swallow a pig. Numerous wallets and small transactions would be prudent. But the process could probably be automated.