Review: Deep Web

Read aguanomics http://www.aguanomics.com/ for the world’s best analysis of the politics and economics of water I wanted to watch this movie to learn more about the foundation and operations of The Silk Road, the most famous “dark web” market where people used a combination of encrypted (PGP) and traceless (Tor) communications technologies to make deals, mostly exchanging bitcoin for drugs.

What I got was a rather ugly update on the drug wars, government misbehavior/corruption, and the future of marketplaces.

Drug wars: The Silk Road attracted attention for its open market for drugs and vendors who were rated by purchasers (just like Amazon.com!). Users were happy to get better, cheaper gear with less risk.* Vendors could invest in building their reputation by competing and offering better services. Politicians and (some) law enforcement saw the site as a slap in the face and challenge to their authority — and perhaps the licit market for opiates and other drugs (e.g., alcohol) that brings lobbyists with money as well as causing the greatest “premature” death toll of any activity in the US — higher than deaths from guns and car accidents, combined.

Those politicians and law enforcement agencies took it upon themselves to shut down the Silk Road.

The next stages — and the bulk of the film — are concerned with capturing the “kingpin” behind the Silk Road (Ross Ulbricht, pictured) by any means, fair or foul.

Government corruption: I’ll cut to the main point, which is that the government violated Ulbricht’s Fourth Amendment Right against unlawful search and seizure when they “copied Silk Road servers” and seized Ulbricht’s laptop without the correct warrants or procedures. Why does this matter? Because Ulbricht was accused of “contracting for the murder of 5-6 individuals” on top of money laundering, computer hacking, and conspiracy to traffic narcotics. Those “attempted murder” charges are what caught the attention of the press and sympathy of the trial judge in Ulbricht’s case, but they were dropped when it came to the real trial. Why? Perhaps because no dead bodies were ever connected to Ulbricht?  Perhaps because the government “planted the evidence” on Ulbricht’s computer. That latter action is very easy for me to believe after following the Drug War for several decades: Cops are willing to break, bend or undermine the law when it comes to catching the “bad” guys (or seizing their assets).

Skeptical? Then think about this: Two government agents involved in catching Ulbricht were tried, convicted and jailed for stealing bitcoins from him in the course of the operation. Perhaps they did more to “help their side.”

(Oh, and don’t forget that poor black men suffer much more than affluent white men (like Ulbricht) from the War, so this story will be old news in communities that have been abused since the 1980s.)

The future of darknet markets: They’re here to stay, for as long as people want drugs and drugs are illegal.** (Related: A very interesting post on how cryptocurrency markets work — or fail!)

Bottom Line: Markets exist where-ever there are willing buyers and sellers. Governments cannot shut them down. The best they can do is regulate them. Ross Ulbricht was a rebel against — and victim of — the US Government’s continued attempt to deny gravity.

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* Most of the danger from “drugs” comes from their illicit status, e.g., “The introduction of medical marijuana laws lead to a decrease in violent crime in states that border Mexico. This is consistent with the theory that marijuana decriminalization reduces violent crime in markets traditionally controlled by Mexican drug trafficking organisations.”

** I just took about 10 minutes to download Tor, find AlphaBay (a big Darknet site), create a profile (I already had GPG — a version of PGP — installed), and find this advert (out of 300k+):

FYI, this $104 purchase supplies the equivalent of 10,000 10mcg doses (I’m not quite sure, actually) or enough to kill about 50 people (100mg of heroin would not kill one). This drug is so cheap that it’s being distributed everywhere to make “fake” heroin but its so strong that people are dying daily. The darknet is delivering what people want, but the lack of legal regulation (and safety) is resulting in violence (street dealers) and death. Legalize it!

Source: http://www.aguanomics.com/2017/06/review-deep-web.html