[tor-talk] Tor as ecommerce platform

[grarpamp]

> .onion is another thing that is tragically failing to reach its
> potential because no one tries to make it useful for normal stuff. I
> rather intensely dislike the way it is being used now, but I also know
> that good use cases exist, and amazing ones are possible.

Ditto. Onionland is mostly defaceable forums thrown up by newbie
admins to feed their addiction for the content that is the forum subject.
There's always a flux of normal stuff announced by hacker/activist/other
normalish type folks. They seem to die quickly for what are probably
common reasons. Onion has a lot of potential for human rights type stuff,
anonymized blogs, non-selective reporting, etc. And it's certainly already
being used for that, just that you can't see it because those users have no
need to be public, they only need to communicate and get their work
done in private. Overall, I suspect the truly 'normal stuff' is well, normal.
No one has the time, and if they did, they'd do it on clearnet because,
well, it's normal. Though unfortunate, drugs, CP, carding, harassment,
etc... will always be disproportionate here. We tolerate it and fight for
anonymous systems because there is more important greater good
going on.

> This is an
> incredibly awesome and powerful tool. I worry deeply we'll lose it
> before it has a chance to develop away from just being used for
> thoughtcrime.

My main concern is the node authorities. It's probably easier to
take down seven or so fixed IP's for some sick twist on contributory
crime, than to legislate away a more agile future form.

> Also, for a point of clarity, Silk Road doesn't exist because of Tor. It
> exists because of bitcoin.

Everything found on Tor can be found on clearnet or in real life. Tor's
not too special in that regard. And good old fashioned police work at
the intersections where they cross can deal with most of it just the same.

No... these systems are the home for thoughts. Commerce is just
some of those taken into production by others. More Plato please.