Your distinction between child porn and drug selling is based on your own moral. (and I personally agree with it). But it is not the distinction done by the laws. (both of them are crimes and punished by prison)

You say that a lot of people are libertarian (I'm myself somewhat libertarian but I don't think it does matter). That doesn't mean that all of them are nor that bitcoin is a libertarian tool. It could be used by libertarian. So what ? Was it the intended goal at the beginning ?  It's just like saying Linux is anti-Windows. Linux is used by anti-microsoft people but it doesn't mean that it's the goal (and annoying anti-windows people are quickly banned from Linux forum, even if they don't say anything bad regarding the law. In your case, it's worse).

Trust me : never try two revolutions at the same time, never mix revolutions. Either you choose bitcoin, either you choose libertarianism, but mixing both at the same time is a recipe for failure. Just like communist people in a free software community.

So, I believe that bitcoin forum's moderator should choose :

1) Bitcoin is an economic/software experiment only. Discussing related politcs is of course good thing but everything should respect the law : no money laundering, no drug, no child porn. Remember : it's the image you give to any external viewer seeking information about bitcoin !  Do you thing that average Joe would trust a bunch of anarchist Junkies to do anything related with their money ?

2) Bitcoin is a libertarian/anarchist project. Your message then makes sense. The image you give also makes sense. But then, it should be advertized from the start so innocent people like me will know what to expect and assume that they are putting their foot in some trouble waters…

Shrödinger's cat thought experiment was such a shame, poisoning a cat is cruel and probably illegal in some countries.

Wise wisdom is wise.

Si vous avez compris cette phrase, ne prenez pas la route.

The average Joe probably laughed when told the earth wasn't flat.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency project kthxbye =)

Ok.  So what was the URL for the wiki page again for the, "How To Start your Own Bitcoin Pot Delivery Service"...?

I happen to know (yes, I have friends who know people), that in New York City at least...  It's not about customers "trusting" the pot man.   It's about the pot man trusting the customers.    You cannot buy from him unless you are either  (1) a long-standing known customer  or  (2) referred personally, and vouched for, by a long-standing customer.   Even then, they are hesitant to take on new customers.   After that, it's just a phone call....  Within 20 minutes, there's a man in your kitchen...  like the Avon Lady... but without the makeup.

That's how it works here.

I really can't see how Bitcoin could improve their business model in any way tho.   They have to deliver the product somehow anyway...  so why not pick up the cash at the same time.

Being anonymous?  No.  Protecting their anonymity by using a drop-spot is not a realistic option for many reasons.    First, it's Manhattan.  There are no secret spots.   Second, who the h*ll would want to go out into the cold and find their weed under a rock in central park...... when they could just have the pot man describing all the new varieties in their kitchen...  no.  It's not gonna happen.   People are far too lazy.   We New Yorkers expect everything delivered.    Mail it?   No way!    When I could have it here within 10-30 minutes.  Nope.

So, you see, Bitcoin offers no advantages to the way it's done now.   The only thing it could do, is allow for an online store that sells randomly to any tom, dick, or harry who visits that page.   And then, there's NO WAY they won't be investigated and shut down pronto!

Sending drugs to random addresses?  Are you insane?!   Why not just mail out sales brochures to the DEA's offices while you're at it!?   That's the nuttiest idea I've EVER heard.  I understand the 50/50 probability math....  But have the CONSEQUENCES of such an action ever even occurred to you!?   It would make national headlines.... until you were locked up... and then the nation would cheer!   The media would dub you "The Heroin Mailer".   Likely, they would consider the mailing of drugs to random addresses to be a crime 10 times WORSE than simply selling it to paying customers.

Yes, the world is not a reflection of New York City. Many people seek mail order service just to avoid the danger of associating with the park darkies.

Bruce might find it interesting to look into "the cartoon network". Using VoIP in hotel rooms, customer databases, bicycle couriers, custom packaging, their own trucking and customs brokers, these guys peddled weed in Manhattan for years before the cops got wise. One Quebecois fellow, Cusson, is still in jail, the first man ever convicted under new laws as operating a continuing criminal enterprise.

Interesting to note; he was undone by his sloppy cell phone habits.

But as I said above, Manhattan in no way is an example of the rest of the world.

Geocaching and bitcoin ftw.

In Portland it's a god damn cottage industry. I go for walks in the evening sometimes and smell soon to be harvested crops in the neighborhood. Lost your job? Grow pot until you find another one. B.C. bud drives the market here, but anyone with a little will can and will set up their own garden and sell it through a friend. It's all very civil. There's a culture of do's and don'ts, etiquette, etc. Don't ask too many questions, if you're a new customer you need a friend to introduce you, don't try to be a wannabe dealer by marking up dub sacks that you bought at retail prices. Hook up your friends, etc. I'm not a participant, but absolutely love to peak in on the market from time to time just to watch.

I've heard heroin dealing is actually moving in this direction, too, with friendly and safe door to door service, referral incentives, etc. A bunch of Mexicans from the same region are making a family businesses out of it and its threatening to disrupt traditional street dealing. I'll have to dig up the link.

I disagree.  I think that a lot of the young dealers are very social network savvy already, and bitcoin adds advantages that even cash in hand cannot provide.  Cash is only anonymous after the fact; if the deal is being observed, such as the case that one of your regulars has been pinched and cut a deal to trade your ass for his own, the dealer loses his product, money and freedom and the cash is used as evidence against him.  If a savvy dealer insists upon bitcoin from all his clients, the client need not be on his person/phone that can be nabbed, but can be a bitcoind running in a foreign country.  That may not prevent the cops from taking it or using it as evidence against the dealer, but it will certianly make it more work, and people who work in the legal system are just as lazy as any other field.  At a minimum, it would require that the cops get a court order to force the dealer to divulge his passwords.  Meanwhile giving a trusted associate the time to move the funds to another account that is not on the same server and therefore completely untraceable.

Using bitcoin in an in person transaction such as this could limit the dealers capital risk exposure by half, because only the physical product is subject to confiscation at the event, so long as the cops are interested in getting the dealer for dealing and not simply possesion with intent.  Ultimately this would reduce the dealers' legal risk exposure because if the cops can no longer get the money also, there is no longer an economic incentive for the cops to do so, and if they let the deal go down using bitcoin, the dealer still got his end of the deal even if he got pinched.

Bullshit.

Contrary to bitcoins, which are virtual and are only information bits, It is quite easy to track any physical evidence.
There are millions of possible methods using which any "heroin store" or other drug store can be tracked.

Let me just point out a few which came to my mind just now. This is surely only tiny part of what FBI/CIA/Whatever can use to track down location of the drug store.

1. Analysing paper type used in packaging the packages - where it was bought, where was it produced. It can probably narrow down the search to s section of country (state or land).
2. Analysing different residues that exist in the paper due to its previous location. Such residues may include :
- Dust from special type of soil existing only in certain territory
- Pollens from certain types of plants that exist only in a certain area, or have greatest concentration in certain area
- Humidity of the paper -can help narrow the search if the drug store is near water or far from water
- Chemicals in the paper (can narrow the search if drug store is located in a city/district with chemical plant, certain type of city etc)
3. Analyse organic residues from the person doing packaging & their DNA
4. Analyse the drugs themselves - repeat everything you have done with paper to the drugs & more.

Just the few methods above will probably be enough to narrow down the search to a small district of a city, or just few blocks... If not, then probably some additional, beter methods exist.

----
Of course i realise that if you would be extremely, (or actually: INSANELY) careful, pack all stuff underwater to avoid polluting, buy your paper in another country, work in latex gloves all the time, use mailboxes in a different random city each time etc, then perhaps you could successfully stay anonymous for few years or something... But sooner or later you will make a mistake, because that's how human brain works. It always makes some number of mistakes, doesn't matter how hard you try.

And when you make the one fatal mistake, FBI/CIA/CSI will get you.

Fuck. I could really use some heroin right now.

99% of the worlds cash money has traces of cocaine on it. Send bitcoins to the madhatter and get cocaine in return.