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After Silk Road 2.0 Bust, Eyes Turn To 'Untouchable' Decentralized Market
apexcp sends this article from The Daily Dot:
Following a wave of Dark Net arrests that brought down the famous anonymous drug market Silk Road 2.0, all eyes have turned to a marketplace called OpenBazaar that is designed to be impossible to shut down. Described as the "next generation of uncensored trade" and a "safe untouchable marketplace," OpenBazaar is fundamentally different from all the online black markets that have come before it, because it is completely decentralized. If authorities acted against OpenBazaar users, they could arrest individuals, but the network would survive. "If you're thinking about OpenBazaar as Silk Road 3.0, you're thinking about it much too narrowly," said OpenBazaar operations lead Sam Patterson in an interview last night. "I actually think it's much more powerful as eCommerce 2.0."
Since it's decentralized, they'll have to go after the actual users. Maybe throw some of them in jail. And since the network will survive, they can generate a steady stream of arrests, rather than shutting down the network and having to find out where all the users have buggered off to.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
This looks great in concept but, having everyone run it on their own machines and host their own store means encouraging lots of people to be vulnerable to every security issue that comes along. Oops one remote exploit and anyone's anonymity can be compromised.
Now, I am not fool, I realize that many of the bigger players will take more steps will protect themselves with dedicated servers rented under false identities etc....but the vast majority are being encouraged to leave themselves exposed to every vulnerablity that comes along because they don't have the sophistication to play the game that they are being encouraged to play.
This is one of the reasons I really liked the concept of freenet....sure everyone is hosting but, there is author anonimty beyond simply "you can't find my IP", there is actual separation between hosted data and how it is published.
Of course, I haven't tried it in years but, the problem always more seemed to be speed than anything since it is funadamentally a storage and retrieval mechanism and not a transport layer.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I don't thing there's going to be any kind of fundamental change in capitalism. The only thing that's going to change is the method and who gets to benefit from it.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
People give up their liberties when government cries "ILLEGAL". The problem is, there is no crime between two willing people.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Politics is about inserting yourself in the way of capitalism, AKA economic freedom, to get paid somehow to get back out of the way.
The first principle is freedom, and it is still way too easy for fraudulent reasons such as "there is only room for one cable company in this city", or 5000 cabs, or one ferry boat company, or private parking near an airport needs a 30% tax because they take business away from the inefficient, on-site government parking lot.
ENOUGH. Time for freedom
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
This is why the Gentle User cannot have nice things.
Tor must be implemented with precision. The steps are involved because the theory is involved. Some of the better, well-informed and technically savvy users have been busted.
I am an IT professional and I am not at all comfortable that I could use Tor and guarantee my own anonymity.
I advise people against using Tor in hopes that they will be able to surf without discovery because it can give a false sense of freedom to do as one wishes.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.