1. TOR originally was a US military project. 2. Wasn't there a TOR network shutdown a couple of days ago?* "Originally sponsored by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, which had been instrumental in the early development of onion routing under the aegis of DARPA, Tor was financially supported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation from 2004 to 2005" *http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/09/freedom-hosting-fbi/ FBI Admits It Controlled Tor Servers Behind Mass Malware Attack
They outed Freedom Hosting on which many Tor .onion sites were hosted. Tor itself can't be "shut down" since it's distributed. The point I was trying to make in the last post was that normal web site operators may decide to shut down voluntarily to avoid legal action. On Tor .onion sites would only voluntarily shut down in anticipation of being caught. It's two different viewpoints where one tries to stay within the law and the other trying to not get caught.
Interesting facts: --Cryptography was really good, and the complaint states that the TOR network makes it "practically impossible" to trace users. --The tumbler worked. It "frustrates attempts to track transactions back to the blockchain and makes it practically impossible to trace users." --There were 9 MILLION bitcoins worth of transactions that passed through the system over time. --The server was in a foreign country. The report does not say where. --There were 957k registered silkroad accounts. --146k unique buyer accounts. --It's unstated from when the investigation started, but they received a complete copy of the Silk Road web server on the 23rd of July 2013. This was all done under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which implies that they had access to current site information up until the point they shut the site down. --This included user account and transaction information. It's unclear whether or not this covers addresses and other sensitive transaction information. **This also apparently covers at least 60 days worth of messages from the period where the site was copied. It seems from the information, PGP messages were probably ok given that the document said PGP makes it practically impossible to trace the users. --Silkroad maintained a small staff of admins, it wasn't just DPR. --It is not certain that PGP worked for DPR, they have messages between the staff and DPR from "forensic analysis of the server." Unless he was not using PGP. --DPR solicited murder for hire. Someone was able to obtain thousands of usernames, passwords, and personal info of silkroad users. It is assumed the feds have this, because they speak about the sample messages of names that the hacker sent. As a result, DPR attempted to have him killed. It is not known if the guy ever was indeed killed. --The silk road was basically made from the shroomery.com, it was the first place he visited. They traced him by finding his old posts on various forums where he advertised it, not as the owner, just saying "I found this site, what do you think about it?" --They caught Ross Ulbricht through simple web sleuthing and a few subpoenas. --He did his web administrating from an internet cafe on Laguna Street in San Fransisco. --Canada intercepted fake ID's going to his home. This was used to match with fake ID requests. --For all the money he made, he lived in a small apartment with room mates for under 1000 a month. --Interview between him and a friend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olib3jnvSmw
Simple police work found his simple crucial mistakes. Nothing fancy. By the way, the exchange rate of BTC with USD fell like 16% at one point as a result of this news.
The cracks are appearing in the bit-coin empire. Crooks seem to have moved in on the well meaning but gullible lot. A sad end to a potty idea it seems. If they had bit-coins made of silver then it would have stood a good chance of being something awesome.
I wouldn't say cracks are beginning to appear since it was never a solid thing to begin with. The fact that it's getting so much attention shows a growing distrust of fiat currencies and central banking monetary policy. People are worried and looking for alternatives to protect themselves.
I agree. While bitcoin was aways small and never even got close to attaining the status of a usable currency -- ay 100X it's size it's not close -- the hype it received is an indication of the growing distrust of fiat.
Not really. The growing attention was due to: 1. Bitcoin rasing from its penny stock status and making 10-20 fold run ups. In a way it is a Ponzi, and people are greedy. 2. Venture capitals and investment firms (10% of the bitcoins is in the Winklewosses' hands) discovering the unique possibility of making shitload of money. 3. Huge publicity due to SilkRoad's great PR 2 years ago. The 2 biggest users of Bitcoins for products and services have been SR and Satoshidice, a gambling website. The point is that it is used for gambling or buying illegal stuff on these website not because the users don't like fiat.... The bottomline is, BTC has been used mostly for its unique properties not what you stated....
Actually the big run-up in USDBTC coincided with the Cyprus banking crisis. BTC was languishing in the sub $20 range for a long time until then. That wasn't greed, it was fear.
For the first time in my lifetime the sibnificant chunks of the general populace are begining to question a wide range of things in our society ... and fiat is one of those things. The problem with the paper is that if you take a close look at it ... well, at this point it is paper without any underpinning. We are quite a way of from that becoming a prevailing view but it is a growing view. In that climate you will see more and more alternatives considered. A few sound and most not.