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Evolution Market's Admins Are Gone, Along With $12M In Bitcoin
tsu doh nimh writes: The Evolution Market, an online black market that sells everything contraband — from marijuana, heroin and ecstasy to stolen identities and malicious hacking services — appears to have vanished in the last 24 hours with little warning. Much to the chagrin of countless merchants hawking their wares in the underground market, the curators of the project have reportedly absconded with the community's bitcoins — a stash that some Evolution merchants reckon is worth more than USD $12 million.
That is correct to an extent. There has always been organized crime. But during times of prohibition their ability to make money has drastically increased because the law has created a situation ripe for their exploitation with a huge market. Drugs is the current profit center for most of the worlds organized criminal organizations. Yes, if we legalized drugs they would continue to exist, but they would lose their primary funding stream. With less funding comes less influence and we'd see a reduction in their ability to continue operations.
The demand for illegal weaponry is not as great as the demand for controlled substances. Yes, there is no doubt criminal organizations would move to other pursuits, but they would be less profitable pursuits. Also, lets acknowledge the demand for illegal weaponry is already being met by criminal organizations. If you dropped the regulations on controlled substances, some of the existing organizations would try and become legit (we saw this during prohibition). Others would be forced into an already crowded market for dealing controlled arms.
Laissez faire for C-4? It would make the Fourth of July a lot more enjoyable but other than that I'm not certain it's a good idea.
According to my late father, miners in the small town where he was born would steal a little dynamite for the 4th. This was in the 1920s. I'm sure the occasional limb was lost; but then mining was not particularly safe either. Of course those were "simpler times".