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Re: While silk road is closed, what improvements would you suggest?
@bullox: Fair critique, and certainly SR's maiden trip through the media certainly left the impression with lots of people that bitcoin was simply synonymous with drugs. And perhaps SR, as it was known, may need to quietly wind down or transition into something else.
But I have to ask the following two questions:
1. Isn't there an inherent value to an electronic currency to have a large population of users who don't have an incentive to manipulate the currency or otherwise introduce fraud into the system? Miners have an incentive to promote the currency, in the hope of running up the exchange value of the coins they mine at an arbitrage to the actual cost (50 BTC - electricity - user time - computer expenses...) Large holders of the e-currency have an incentive to hype the currency, also to boost the value of their holdings. Both groups potentially have an incentive to defraud the system to gain a larger exchange value for their holdings. But large groups of people only using the currency for "normal" transactions serve to introduce stability to the economy as a whole. How is this different from tourists flying to Amsterdam, exchanging cash into euros, spending 3 straight days higher than a kite in every coffeeshop in town, and then exchanging those euros back into their home currency before the flight home?
2. Wouldn't generating, and informally peer-reviewing, ideas to improve SR also serve to improve the concept of any anonymous marketplace to follow after SR? Demand for illegal drugs just happens to be one of the most commonly pursued "anonymous" transactions, and it's hard enough to do in the non-virtual world that a critical mass of people are eager to try an online experiment to see if it works. Rather than discourage improving upon this first effort, wouldn't it be better for the community to rapidly evolve the concept of a truly anonymous online marketplace so that it doesn't just have to encompass drugs?
But I have to ask the following two questions:
1. Isn't there an inherent value to an electronic currency to have a large population of users who don't have an incentive to manipulate the currency or otherwise introduce fraud into the system? Miners have an incentive to promote the currency, in the hope of running up the exchange value of the coins they mine at an arbitrage to the actual cost (50 BTC - electricity - user time - computer expenses...) Large holders of the e-currency have an incentive to hype the currency, also to boost the value of their holdings. Both groups potentially have an incentive to defraud the system to gain a larger exchange value for their holdings. But large groups of people only using the currency for "normal" transactions serve to introduce stability to the economy as a whole. How is this different from tourists flying to Amsterdam, exchanging cash into euros, spending 3 straight days higher than a kite in every coffeeshop in town, and then exchanging those euros back into their home currency before the flight home?
2. Wouldn't generating, and informally peer-reviewing, ideas to improve SR also serve to improve the concept of any anonymous marketplace to follow after SR? Demand for illegal drugs just happens to be one of the most commonly pursued "anonymous" transactions, and it's hard enough to do in the non-virtual world that a critical mass of people are eager to try an online experiment to see if it works. Rather than discourage improving upon this first effort, wouldn't it be better for the community to rapidly evolve the concept of a truly anonymous online marketplace so that it doesn't just have to encompass drugs?
While silk road is closed, what improvements would you suggest?
By now, we've all heard that Silk Road has temporarily closed to new members, and we've all read the Gawker story and all the chatter afterwards.
What changes would you suggest while the site is down for improvements anyway? We've all seen what features or weaknesses will be attacked by the media, so why not work on fixing those weaknesses now?
I have nothing to do with the site (got a peek but didn't get an account in time), but it looks like "Silk Road" is pretty active on here, so I'm guessing our input will be heard.
So, how would you improve The Silk Road next time?
What changes would you suggest while the site is down for improvements anyway? We've all seen what features or weaknesses will be attacked by the media, so why not work on fixing those weaknesses now?
I have nothing to do with the site (got a peek but didn't get an account in time), but it looks like "Silk Road" is pretty active on here, so I'm guessing our input will be heard.
So, how would you improve The Silk Road next time?
hey gang, here's the scoop...
The site went mainstream way faster than we were hoping and we weren't prepared for the traffic. Everyone on the site knows what a pain it is getting 502 errors all the time. So, we are working on setting up an even more secure server that can handle all the traffic as well. Once we get that set up, and make some more improvements here and there, we'll be opening back up, whether by invite, open registration, or whatever.
For everyone pissed at us, we just want to offer our sincere apologies. We really didn't expect all of the media to catch on so quickly, and we should have been prepared with a semi-closed system. We'll do our best to get out of the spotlight and hopefully the merits of Bitcoin will become the focus.
Also, if there is anyone out there locked out of their accounts with bitcoins in them, pm us here with "bitcoins in account" as the subject. Please don't pm for any other reason.
This is fun, love you guys/gals
The site went mainstream way faster than we were hoping and we weren't prepared for the traffic. Everyone on the site knows what a pain it is getting 502 errors all the time. So, we are working on setting up an even more secure server that can handle all the traffic as well. Once we get that set up, and make some more improvements here and there, we'll be opening back up, whether by invite, open registration, or whatever.
For everyone pissed at us, we just want to offer our sincere apologies. We really didn't expect all of the media to catch on so quickly, and we should have been prepared with a semi-closed system. We'll do our best to get out of the spotlight and hopefully the merits of Bitcoin will become the focus.
Also, if there is anyone out there locked out of their accounts with bitcoins in them, pm us here with "bitcoins in account" as the subject. Please don't pm for any other reason.
This is fun, love you guys/gals
Thanks for the update Silkroad! Looking forward to getting access when all the changes are made :-)