Drugs, Code and ICOs: Monero's Long Road to the Blockchain Mainstream
If monero was the top-performing cryptocurrency of 2016, don't tell that to the blockchain project's outspoken maintainer. At a Club Med resort in Cancun, Mexico, Riccardo Spagni takes a pause from his general airing of grievances to order his second margarita. Armed with oversized shades and jovial blue shorts, he looks more 'Jersey Shore' than 'Mr Robot', a style you might not expect from someone whose claim to fame is offering privacy in drug market payments. But, the impression that Spagni isn't to be taken seriously is soon wiped away by his biting South African accent and razor-sharp....
Related News
The Silk Road 2.0 saga continues, a 29-year old Briton has pleaded guilty to supplying and possessing drugs on the Silk Road 2.0 platform. Silk Road 2.0 was the successor of nefarious drug-dealing platform Silk Road, created by Ross Ulbricht in order to create a use case for popular digital currency Bitcoin. The history of Bitcoin has been plagued by both Silk Road and Silk Road 2.0 platforms. Not because these platforms created new use cases for the popular digital currency, but because they are both associated with illegal substances, drugs and other illicit dealings. Ever since both....
Alphabay, a deep web marketplace is soon starting to accept Monero on the platform. The increased interest in Monero is attributed to its enhanced privacy features. A new cryptocurrency is giving Bitcoin a run for its money when it comes to the title of being the most favored currency on the dark net. Monero, as the cryptocurrency is titled, is gaining recognition for its better-tha-Bitcoin privacy features. Unlike Bitcoin, the blockchain of which is open and transparent, and can easily trace users by their respective wallet addressed, Monero automatically generates a new wallet address....
A new report has found that when it comes to selling drugs online, the Netherlands is one of the leading countries selling drugs through darknet vendors. The report, Internet-facilitated drugs trade [pdf] was undertaken by the Dutch justice ministry and looked at the size, scope, and the role the Netherlands plays in the online drugs trade. The role of the Internet as an avenue for people to utilize to buy and sell drugs first gained attention during Silk Road. However, even though it was taken down by the FBI in October 2013, it wasn’t long before replicas replaced it. According to the....
Drugs are generally classified as illegal in most of the places across the world. Each country has its own legislation against the production, sale, possession and consumption of different recreational drugs. Just because the use of certain drugs for recreational purposes is illegal doesn't mean those drugs are not available in that country. People can always find ways to procure these substances through intermediaries or they can always order over the internet on sites like Silk Road. People sometimes pay a small fortune to procure these drugs, and they may not always get what they paid....
Writing on Gizmodo Australia, Kate Knibbs acutely observes that there are three things you can count on in life: Death, taxes, and people buying drugs on the internet. Two days ago, the FBI and other international law enforcement agencies shut down Silk Road 2.0 and other online drug markets, and arrested tens of people. Of course, there is already a Silk Road 3.0, and it seems likely that other Silk Roads will follow. The news about Silk Road 3.0 were first reported by Business Insider and shared on Reddit yesterday, but without revealing the address of the new online crypto market.....