A Sober Look at the Silk Road amid Changing Drug Laws

By April 12, 2016Bitcoin Business

A proliferation of illegal activities admittedly took place on darknet Silk Road marketplace. Very quickly, politicians like Charles Schumer took aim at the Silk Road. Brought down in 2013 by law enforcement, the Silk Road did put an idea into society that is likely here to stay; distributed e-commerce, anonymous and peer-reviewed as can be through the use of digital currency.

At its heart: Bitcoin. A digital currency founded in 2008 by an unknown developer, who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, that allows for pseudonymous transactions. Ross Ulbricht, convicted Silk Road founder, leveraged this technology to allow for his darknet marketplace to enable the buying and selling of illicit goods. While the Silk Road enjoyed its heyday, researchers from academia demonstrated the way in which Bitcoin transactions could be tracked and analyzed. Drugs listed on Silk Road The Silk Road’s poor reputation arises largely thanks to murder-for-hire schemes which place the site under a dark cloud. The damage it wreaked via the drug sales it enabled is less clear. One heroin dealer from the site detailed how the Silk Road ruined his life. Yet, with global drug laws swiftly changing (in particular in terms of cannabis), the site deserves a fair comparison.There are elements of global political establishments that have pushed for decriminalization of various types of drugs.

Also read: Two Years After Darknet’s Most Infamous Drug Market’s Fall…

The Netherlands’ marijuana laws have been notoriously lax . In Vancouver, British Columbia, cannabis storefronts proliferating on and off. Current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed his desire to decriminalize and regulate cannabis. Cannabis is legal in many jurisdictions across the planet. Australia has considered the regulation of entheogens. In Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal , the Supreme Court ultimately overturned a New Mexico Court […]

Leave a Reply

All Today's Crypto News In One Place