Quote from: catfish on January 05, 2012, 03:51:42 PM

To be frank, and this will get me a LOT of sneering and bad attitudes...

Bitcoin needs to take the black market. Completely. One of the biggest (if not the biggest) trades globally is the drug trade. Now by 'drug trade' most people think of physical shipment, meeting dodgy people, handing over cash, getting unknown product. However, in the USA (I'm not American nor in the US, FWIW), the *prescription drug* market is a similarly huge trade.

And it's underground. Online pharmacies, etc. Anyone running their own email gets enough spam to know what most of them sell, but selling *prescription* versions of recreational drugs (painkillers, anxiolytics, stimulants, etc.) is a BIG business on the internet.

It's the middle class drug dealer network, basically. People want to pay conveniently and have pure, blister-pack drugs shipped in the mail to them - without a prescription.

This is illegal, but incredibly popular. For years, the trade has gone on using various methodologies to pay the vendors. Credit cards worked for a short while, then the big processors got shut down. Then chinese credit card processors stepped in, until a major one was shut down recently. The money-sending orgs like Western Union are massively used for this sort of trade, and as everyone knows, Western Union costs a fortune.

It's *big* business, and one seemingly ideally suited to Bitcoin. Yes, I'll get flamed for suggesting illegal use of the currency, but if you want it getting used widely and in quantity... it's manna from heaven for these guys AFAICT.

If anyone here uses internet pharmacies (legally or illegally) - I'd recommend asking them to accept BTC and telling them how to exchange the currencies as and when required. Yes, it's tantamount to money laundering but this depends on whether you view the USA drug laws as just or not... (this is for a different thread, of course).

Don't be paranoid, you won't get banned, Anyways I have to say that the black market has to be careful, as bitcoins are NOT anonymous.

And, btw, we the bitcoiners cannot visually support the bitcoin economy with your approach. But we can try to buy normal things in our local shops with bitcoins. So let's do it!

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