No sooner than a week after widespread news broke describing Silk Road, a website which some are calling the Amazon.com of online illegal drugs, we have two U.S. Senators seeking to pull-the-plug on the site and the peer-to-peer virtual currency used to pay for drugs called Bitcoin.
ArsTechnica has a nice summary of Bitcoin:
Can the U.S. Government Stop Silk Road and Bitcoin?
Government has had success shutting down centrally managed peer-to-peer services, like Napster. However, 'pure' peer-to-peer sites like Gnutella and Tor, have proven more difficult. Data and services can simply move from a server in one country to another, and pure peer-to-peer is widely distributed by it's very nature. In short, it could prove extremely difficult for the DEA to take down Silk Road.
Bitcoin, however, does link back to actual bank accounts, which perhaps leaves more room for the government to maneuver.
I should have more to say on Bitcoin in the not too distant future.
ArsTechnica has a nice summary of Bitcoin:
Bitcoin is a virtual currency, designed to allow people to buy and sell without centralized control by banks or governments, and it allows for pseudonymous transactions which aren't tied to a real identity. In keeping with the hacker ethos, Bitcoin has no need to trust any central authority; every aspect of the currency is confirmed and secured through the use of strong cryptography.
Over the last few months, Bitcoin's value has risen by an order of magnitude as the sagas of Wikileaks and Anonymous (among others) have highlighted the limits of a financial system which relies on centralized intermediaries. With a current estimated market capitalization of about $100 million, Bitcoin has recently graduated from a theoretical techno-anarchic project patronized by libertarians and hackers to a full-fledged currency prompting comment from technologists and economists. At the time of this writing, one Bitcoin (BTC) is worth about US$15.Here's the original Bitcoin white paper published by Satoshi Nakamoto.
Can the U.S. Government Stop Silk Road and Bitcoin?
Government has had success shutting down centrally managed peer-to-peer services, like Napster. However, 'pure' peer-to-peer sites like Gnutella and Tor, have proven more difficult. Data and services can simply move from a server in one country to another, and pure peer-to-peer is widely distributed by it's very nature. In short, it could prove extremely difficult for the DEA to take down Silk Road.
Bitcoin, however, does link back to actual bank accounts, which perhaps leaves more room for the government to maneuver.
I should have more to say on Bitcoin in the not too distant future.
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