Would rather have an adrenal gland.bengraven said:Can I buy a human pituitary gland?
Yeah, that's not true.PantherLotus said:I know you want to fit in, but LSD users don't think pictures like this are interesting when the bathroom floor will suffice. Just sayin'.
Normally I'd agree with him, but there's a little problem called the corporation. Economic crimes should be an exception to the rule.Mark, the LSD buyer, had similar views. "I'm a libertarian anarchist and I believe that anything that's not violent should not be criminalized," he said.
parrotbeak said:Would rather have an adrenal gland.
ST. LOUIS (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - Two senators are pressing federal authorities to crack down on an online black market and "untraceable" digital currency known as Bitcoins after reports that they are used to buy illegal drugs anonymously.
Democratic Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Joe Manchin of West Virginia wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder and Drug Enforcement Administration head Michele Leonhart in a letter that expressed concerns about the underground website "Silk Road" and the use of Bitcoins to make purchases there.
The letter prompted a discussion among Bitcoin enthusiasts about whether the government was capable of closing related bank accounts and thereby stifling the currency.
The senators released a copy of their letter on Monday. It cites recent media reports that some tech-savvy individuals were using an "anonymizing network" known as Tor to gain clandestine access to Silk Road and buy illegal drugs.
Silk Road buyers pay with Bitcoins and sellers mail the drugs, the Gawker blog reported. The transactions leave no traditional money trail for investigators to follow, and leave it hard to prove a package recipient knew in advance what was in a shipment.
"The only method of payment for these illegal purchases is an untraceable peer-to-peer currency known as Bitcoins. After purchasing Bitcoins through an exchange, a user can create an account on Silk Road and start purchasing illegal drugs from individuals around the world and have them delivered to their homes within days," the senators' letter states. "We urge you to take immediate action and shut down the Silk Road network."
The DEA is "absolutely" concerned about Bitcoins and other anonymous digital currencies, agency spokeswoman Dawn Dearden said when asked for a response to the senators' concerns.
"The DEA is constantly evaluating and analyzing new technologies and schemes perpetrated by drug trafficking networks. While we won't confirm or deny the existence of specific investigations, DEA is well aware of these emerging threats and we will act accordingly," she said.
Silk Road may be hard to close. It could easily move from server to server around the globe and change its Web address and name at will, while remaining accessible through Tor.
However, Bitcoins must be purchased with real money; of late, they have been selling for roughly $10 each.
Therefore, there are exchanges with bank accounts, such as the Mt. Gox Bitcoin Exchange, that the Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies may be able to target. It is this weak link that worries the currency's enthusiasts.
A discussion thread this week on the primary Bitcoin forum was titled "Will Mt. Gox US Bank accounts eventually get frozen?" Some speculated that if the government bans transactions involving Bitcoin exchanges, a layer of shell companies might allow them to continue.
One user described this process as simply "growing pains" and asserted that the government "can't stop a peer-to-peer service."
U.S. law enforcers might have difficulty stopping Bitcoins without help from their peers in other countries.
While little information about Bitcoin exchanges is publicly available, an item posted on a website called Bitcoin Watch states that Mt. Gox's bank account is in Japan, and anecdotal evidence suggests many other exchanges operate outside of the US.
Mt. Gox's website does not list a phone number, representatives could not be reached via email.
no shit.The DEA is "absolutely" concerned about Bitcoins and other anonymous digital currencies
Technosteve said:i could buy a minkey's paw on the internet? I must prepare my wishes
ajim said:Theres a lot worse going on in Tor land than the sale of illicit drugs. I've learned to stay away, it's not my cup of tea.
Along with child porn, where to find child prostitutes in Asia, how to groom children, people posting credit card numbers etc.picklecannon said:Yeah I think there was a thread either here or on reddit not to long ago where some dude went on a couple of these hidden websites and got a forum full of drug dealing, prostitution and people hiring hitmen. Crazy stuff.
mr stroke said:How does this work-
Do they mail drugs to my house? do they arrange local pick up from a shady part of town?
http://www.google.com/m/url?ei=uRBb...QQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNHFLF4TA9k25h81U5vf6RUlQ5MWwwteh_pwn said:Silk Road? What is that name based on? Wasn't the black death believed to be been carried by silk trade/road?
FantasticMrFoxdie said:Wow, online black market?
DO THEY SELL $99 HP TOUCHPADS!?!
Futureman said:Didn't the value of bitcoins go to shit recently? Or was that just some temporary glitch?
Previous said:Its only a matter of time before the DEA/FBI/INTERPOL/BATMAN comes down hard on tor related illegal activities, but still, something like this has almost unlimited potential to grow. Even if law enforcement created a magical machine that could give up every tor users identity, the next day drug dealers are just going to be back with another shiny new device thing to sell the product. Ive browsed tor just out of curiosity some and I can't even imagine what a "deeper" web could escalate to.
TL4E said:I'm guessing this won't last very long. If it does, the DEA will probably start a sting operation and using the service will be rendered too dangerous.
Smision said:bump--
was reading about TOR this weekend and Silk Road in particular. I decided it's not illegal to browse and took a look.
Wow. just wow. This is the real internet, folks.
The article doesn't talk about all the other shit for sale there--
--guns + ammo
--probably child porn ( there's a "XXX" section and I'm assuming it's not videos you can find on Xhamster...but I didn't click it)
--other illegal weapons (monkey fists, brass knuckles, knives, chemicals)
--not just drugs, but every single drug under the sun and a ton that I didn't recognize
--various guides to tell you how to hack various things for money, passwords, etc.
--credit card readers
From what I can tell, a lot of people on that side of the internet have a pretty strong Libertarian slant (no surprises.) Many would like to see Silk Road be an example of a legitimate free market built entirely on bitcoins, so you see random legal items up there too. It's pretty fucking fascinating. They've got a forum where people discuss every aspect of buying and selling, from setting up PGP to laundering bitcoins to packaging, receiving, etc. Apparently there are 50,000+ users, with a big boom after the gawker article, which forced them to upgrade and decentralize their hardware after their servers crashed from the traffic. The mods on the site think it's a good thing that there are so many users-- I imagine it makes it less likely that the government will go after low level buyers (1/8 bag of weed) and go after the higher level guys instead (dealers, weapon/CP buyers.)
I was reading about other onion sites on reddit-- apparently there are "assassination" boards where people can request...yeah. Seemed inconclusive as to whether it's real or not. I imagine if the government could do something about it, they would have by now.
There's a feedback system and all the sellers want every communication coded in PGP. No feedback system for buyers though. If this is a honey trap, well, it's pretty damn elaborate because people are buying, selling, and receiving drugs.
anyway, just thought some people would find this interesting. I get my herb locally, but I wouldn't rule out trying it in the future. Kind of a high technical level of entry though (but hey, you've always wanted to learn how to launder money...right?!) On the other hand, senators spoke out about it around the time the Gawker article came out and wanted it busted, so it's probably a matter of time before the cops get some busts off of it.
FStop7 said:Yeah, this. There's nothing to stop the DEA from setting up a false storefront and then arresting whoever picks up the package at the PO Box (or at their house if they're dumb enough to have their drugs shipped directly).
OK now this leaves me pretty much convinced that the entire thing is one gigantic honeypot.
Smision said:i may have been unclear-- the assassination thing is some other TOR site that some guy mentioned on reddit, not Silk Road.
but unless this is the most elaborate gov't conspiracy ever, Silk Road is pretty real. The feedback system is what keeps it "safe" and the forums have lots of information on anonymizing everything to the point where you have a pretty impenetrable shield of plausible deniability. Usually, people have stuff sent to them directly, but with a slightly altered name. Or they have it sent to vacant property.
But even Silk Road has limits: You won't find any weapons-grade plutonium, for example. Its terms of service ban the sale of "anything who's purpose is to harm or defraud, such as stolen credit cards, assassinations, and weapons of mass destruction."
Smision said:i may have been unclear-- the assassination thing is some other TOR site that some guy mentioned on reddit, not Silk Road.
almost a 3 month old threadAmir0x said:damn don't advertise this shit
now shit will be down in a week
Amir0x said:damn don't advertise this shit
now shit will be down in a week
wenis said:when i got friends talking about it on facebook...i know it's not something hidden anymore. we've got to go deeper, it's time to create another layer to the internet.
a secret secret internet. i shall call it, the double secret internet.
Gaborn, that doesn't seem fair. Gawker gets millions of readers a day and a lot of them also peruse GAF. if it wasn't you posting this article it would have been someone else, maybe even someone without the foresight to not post the link in this thread. Not that it would have changed anything at all, but still...
if people want to find out about this stuff it really isn't that hard and it's not like GAF is exempt from the rules of the internet. Discussion will happen about everything.
Lost Fragment said:I can think of a lot of legitimate uses for a thing like Tor, some of them quite important, but I'm having trouble figuring out if it's worth giving murderers, thieves, child porn peddlers, and terrorists a relatively safe place to communicate with each other.