[tor-talk] Tor as ecommerce platform

[antispam06 at sent.at]

On Wed, Aug 8, 2012, at 04:27, morristan wrote:
> Silk Road reported to make $1.9 million per month, 
> http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/08/06/black-market-drug-site-silk-road-booming-22-million-in-annual-mostly-illegal-sales/
> 
> Tor Project reported to make $1.3 million per year, 
> https://www.torproject.org/about/findoc/2010-TorProject-combined-Form990_PC_Audit_Results.pdf 
> (page 3). Read carefully, Tor Project lost $17,285 in 2010 on revenues 
> of $1.336 million. In plain english, they spent more than they received.
> 
> Perhaps the Silk Road people should donate to Tor. Perhaps they should 
> fund hidden service improvements in Tor. Perhaps both.

This is a silly idea.

In the perpetual war against drugs Tor could be harmed. And once the
link established the government can deny in the strongest of terms there
is any connection with the free speech blocking. Given the other two
perpetual wars (against child porn and against terrorism) can be easily
associated with Tor.

As for the elusive Silk Road site, I would say get and read The Politics
of Heroin by Alfred W. McCoy.

> This informs me a few things:
> 
> 1. Tor is easier to use than we think, given motivation to do so.
> 2. 150,000 or so people use Tor for hidden services, or for silk road 
> alone (a hidden service).
> 3. Tor is not profiting from hidden services.

This is a sick idea. Or is it a joke?

> 4. Tor and hidden services are good enough for an ecommerce platform.