From: Razer <Rayzer@riseup.net>
The Economist The promise of the blockchain The trust machine The technology behind bitcoin could transform how the economy works
Oct 31st 2015 | From the print edition
BITCOIN has a bad reputation. The decentralised digital cryptocurrency, powered by a vast computer network, is notorious for the wild fluctuations in its value, the zeal of its supporters and its degenerate uses, such as extortion, buying drugs and hiring hitmen in the online bazaars of the “dark net”. If anything, I would say that the problem is the LACK of "hiring hitmen in the online bazaars of the 'dark net'". Silk Road apparently worked quite well in regards to allowing people a mechanism to sell illegal drugs. If even a single hitman had been hired, by a single customer, and proceeded to kill even a single target, things would look very different on all subsequent days. If Sanjuro's "Assassination Market" taught us anything, it is that the public is quite ready for a fully-functioning AP-type system, whether it be based on Tor, Ethereum, Augur, or any other such mechanism. Jim Bell