Topic: Do you see Silk Road's closure as a positive or negative? - page 6. (Read 8143 times)

OK, but bitcoin was being tarred with that SR brush by those in the media who, for what ever reason had taken it on themselves to portray btc in that light and I think we can agree, or I would certainly hope, that public perception is very much influenced by media, particularly the lobotomising mainstream media.

That SR has been removed from the equation means that over time, the slur that was being used against btc as a legitimate currency will look increasingly ridiculous for those deriding btc in such a way. Obviously that doesn't mean btc can no longer be used to facilitate criminal exchange any less than filthy corrupt fiat can be also, but it's good that a lazy SR association used against btc has been removed in my opinion.

If you read who I was responding to, pointing out the obvious seemed necessary.

lulz...

So why is the Bitcoin price up by $20 then?

thank you for pointing out the obvious.

no SR - > less btc trades - > btc value going down

I can only roll my eyes at people who speak of "public perception". Not only are they worried about something that doesn't matter, they really don't know what the masses think anyway.

So not the same btc everyone else is mining/using then?

To suggest 1 btc was traded on the silk road 9 million times is ridiculous but I get your point, although I still disagree with it.  In any Econ 101 class one of the first things you learn is trade is the foundations of any economy and hence currency.  Even backed currencies are limited in value when not suspended in a medium of healthy trade.  As you said btc is a currency of speculation, in fact PURE speculation.  BTC isn't limited by even a rate of production, its just code and encryption.  The value created by trade isn't a linear relationship its exponential and even if more conservative number would assign 40% of transaction on the silk road this would be the equivalent of 40% of US businesses disappearing overnight.  The crippling effects of losing the SR are compounded by the exact reason you state, btc is a speculative economy and lately speculation is largely negative.  People will believe bitcoin is worth less without a marketplace to fill the void SR left.  Not every btc user has to use drugs in order for the market to recognize the volume of trade created by SR.  That's like suggestion every American has to own a fighter jet to recognize the volume of trade created by lockhead martin.


Like I said, I wouldn't say 75% loss of trade volume is nothing but thats a difference of opinion.  People speculating the decline of btc doesn't necessarily have anything to do with its value next to USD.  People speculate the decline of USD but thats not because they feel like they'll be able to buy less Yen.  Comparison to other currencies is a valuable metric for determining their future ability to trade said currency for goods and services.  In this case many bitcointalk users are American and therefore use their most convenient metric, USD.


I never suggested USD was more stable, or I had more control over its value or really anything about USD at all.  As you said:

Well this is where the media and the stories you hear are blown way out of proportion.

Yes there were over 9 million Bitcoins of trades on Silk Road but in the same sense you could send 1 bitcoin 9 million times and get the same effect.

In terms of Silk Road being the main reason Bitcoin has it's value is hugely falsified.

Bitcoins are a currency based of speculation , that's traded similar to a Stock and only holds the value that the people have in it.

To say Silk Road is the reason Bitcoin is holding it's value would be to say that every Bitcoin user uses drugs and previously bought drugs on Silk Road

The only amount of Bitcoins seized didn't even total 30,000 Bitcoins....

Bitcoins are worth what we the people believe them to be worth.

The media , The Bitcoin Community , The Shills and The Trolls need to stop spreading panic and fear for no reason what so ever...

To assume you make an ass out of u and me

Thus is the case with Silk Road

Stop assuming that the Bitcoin price is going to crash and also stop assuming that the only viable use for Bitcoins is the value it has in USD

Bitcoin is it's own currency that's sole purpose was a medium of trade , One that did not have a corrupt Federal Reserve controlling the production of it and never allowing anyone to be free of debt.

You don't own your Bitcoins just as you don't own your FIAT currency the difference is Bitcoin is worth what the people say it is not The Federal Reserve...

As with just about everything in life its not all good, or all bad.  I've heard the different perspectives, and I agree that public perception of bitcoin will be improved with the downfall of SR.  It's undeniable however that SR contributed in a huge way to the value of bitcoin just because the market didn't recognize this within a week of SR going down doesn't mean it won't.  I've read that as much as 75% of btc transactions were related to the SR, from a classical economics perspective that would make SR more than the backbone of btc that would make it the circulatory system.  But on the other hand, the fall of the silk road gave btc a lot of attention and as mentioned before improved public perception.  If new vendors accepting bitcoin keep cropping up with a little luck that 75% void will be filled in with a thriving marketplace.  If btc is a little less lucky a SR clone will pop up by the end of the week accepting some kind of scrypt currency and bitcoin will inevitably collapse before the replacement marketplace ever comes to fruition.

Honestly if I had the balls to run a website like SR, I'd dump all my money into something like worldcoin make a clone that only accepts worldcoin, and be rich overnight.

IMO, now is a good time to diversify.

Good in the long run, but for now its very negative as how the news relate bitcoin to drugs.

You're implying everyone who uses bitcoin is a drug addict, which I'm pretty sure is not true.

I see the prosecution of people who take out, or even try to take out hits on their "business" rivals and enemies (even when those are scum themselves) as a good thing.  So if DPR is guilty of trying to do that, I see his prosecution as generally a good thing.

As for the short-term, it's a PR black eye for Bitcoin to be associated with these kinds of shenanigans, although just like cash, people will always do illegal things with it. . .and automobiles, and cell phones, and computers, and all sorts of things that are otherwise good.

In the long term, who cares?  It's not going to have much of an impact.  I predict that the successful model for an Internet black market is closer to BitTorrent than Napster, and SR was the Napster of such enterprises.  Way out of line, way illegal, and way prosecutable.  Plus you had a dude at the top who took out $80 million as his cut of the illegal business.  Hard for him to portray himself as some kind of white knight.

Done at a peer to peer level, there is no "Dread Pirate Roberts" to bust, and everyone takes responsibility for their own actions.

i never been there before....but if doing thing bad, it should be shutdown ..

Positive in the long term.

Abscence of authority? yes, indeed. But a state of disorder? No way.
It's no chaos, the order is managed by maths (and partly by common consent) instead of an authority.

No ones saying silk roads permanent closure is good for bitcoin, for all we know it could come back online and even if it doesn't there are other similar marketplaces that will grow to replace it but this 'closure event' has clearly been good for bitcoin.  The price has survived and theres been a ton of publicity.  It's probably the single biggest publicity boost bitcoin has ever received.

Its not an opinion its a fact. Bitcoin is Freedom ,Anonymity and Anarchy! Let me define Anarchy for you so you can understand. Anarchy:a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.Now lets move on. How exactly does Sex hurt Bitcoin, are you kidding me ? I can see maybe drugs and scams hurt its over all image to Bible thumpers and Libtards who like to control people but sex? let me ask you how you came to be created?  

It is a huge advertising for bitcoin. Positive in the mid and long run.

is positive in the long run

Definitely negative.

I'd say SR was a net-positive to society. It brought transparency to the drug-market place, which meant safer drug use.

In the coming months, I'd say that we'll also see how futile Drug Law Enforcement really is.

The market is wide open. You've got merchants who need to move product, and users who want the convenience of an online market place. Only matter a time before another entrepreneur fills this gap.

Best part of all is that the criminal complaint is in public domain[1], which means no one's going to make DPR's mistakes again.

I've already seen people talk about a 'distributed approach' rather than a centralized marketplace like SilkRoad (which is really built off the eBay model). Perhaps an "Anonymous Shopify" model will work, whereby any merchant can set up a shop and host it themselves with ease. Much harder to take down.


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[1] www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/~nweaver/UlbrichtCriminalComplaint.pdf