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xprnio
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Disclaimer: This is all theoretical. Neither me nor my friend (with whom I discussed this) are stupid enough to even try to pursue this, but as an idea, i believe it might generate cool/new ideas/ways for handling secure communications across social groups.

Let's do some role play. Let's design a delivery app for drug dealers, think Seamless or Uber Eats, but for drugs. Not for big deliveries, like kilograms of coke, but smaller stuff. Maybe a few grams of it or something. The clients could rate dealers, and vide-versa. This would build a level of trust within the system. There would be no names, just anonymous reviews, ratings, and prices. Only the info you'd need to know.

The biggest (only?) problem we found (besides legality) was that, how would you prove that you're a client and not a snitch (or cop). This would have to somehow be handled both on signup, as well as when ordering (let's imagine that all who are clients are pure and won't ever snitch).

One of the ways we found to combat this was to have the app invite-only. This would, in theory, do away with the problem of having snitches signing up. However, what if the phone got stolen/breached by a snitch, and they also got full access to the account. One way we thought we could combat this would be with a "dispose number" or something similar. Basically, you call a number, or send a text, or message a Signal bot etc, which would lead to the account's instant termination, no traces of that user left. Hence, a dispose number.

The flow of the app would be as follows:
A client wants some amount of heroin. He opens the app, searches for a dealer, sends the him the desired amount, and in return gets back a price from the dealer. If both parties agree on the amount and price, the deal would start.

The app would then select a random time (taken from the client's selected timeframe and the dealer's "open" time) and a location (within a certain radius of both them, somewhere in between them both for convenience). If both of them accept the time and place, they'll have to meet up at said time and place.

The actual delivery could also be done using two dead drops - the client drops the money at one of them, the dealer drops the goods at the other one. Yes, this might be subject to abuse, but it wouldn't be that bad. I doubt that clients would make huge orders to unknown/badly rated dealers, as well as dealers accepting offers from badly rated clients. My idea is that they would start small, just so if they do lose their money/goods, the actual loss wouldn't be as big for them, but for the other party, having bad ratings would mean less clients willing to buy or dealers willing to sell.

A third way would be to use crypto, but the reason I left this as the last one is because it's not that wide-spread yet, at least not in local drug dealing. With this method, the client would initiate the order, the crypto would be sent to either the dealer or an escrow account, the dealer would then drop the goods at a random place and let the client know where to go to get them. After the client has gotten the goods, they could both review/rate the quality as well as the overall experience with that dealer, which would either make or break the dealer's upcoming deals. This would be pretty much like other DNM's, but on a local scale, making deliveries faster.

So far, this would seem like something that would work. Are there any ideas that might improve this? Anything that might make things more secure/anonymous?

My reason for this post is to spark a conversation about security and anonymity, not to endorse drugs or other illegal stuff.

Cheers!

PS. Really loving the new PC design of devRant

Comments
  • 1
    Hypothetically, an anonymized cryptocurrency like Monero through an escrow account would offer better safety for clients than cash dead drops.
  • 0
    @greyfade I know it would, but the current problem with cryptocurrencies in general is that they're not widespread enough. For example - we all know a guy that buys/sells weed (let's keep this example lighter than heroin), or somebody that pops Molly at the club, or something similar. Just, somebody that uses illegal substances to some extent. What are the odds of that person using crypto? Granted, if this was actually to be developed some day with only crypto payments, and would get enough traction from actual users/dealers, it might boost the usage of crypto, as well as make users/dealers move to untraceable digital currency instead of untraceable cash. My point being, crypto would be the safest and best bet, but it seems like it'd require a huge leap for both clients and dealers.
  • 0
    @xprnio By "not widespread enough" I don't mean in the way that they weren't widespread 5 years ago for example. What I mean is that, usually the people dealing with crypto are DNM users/vendors and traders. That's the current demographic for them, at least from what I've seen. They have a lot of potential, no doubt about it, but as it stands now, nobody has really been able to take advantage of that potential in a bigger scheme of things
  • 0
    @xprnio you got very much of this thought through, what are you planning and how can i become part of it?
  • 0
    @YouAreAPIRate I have a tendency to really think thoroughly about stuff that get stuck in my head, and this was one of them. For the record, I'm not planning anything, so there's nothing you can become a part of ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
  • 1
    @YouAreAPIRate But what about we fly to some third-world country, start this thing there, and then bribe the locals to give us a haven from the FBI's and CIA's and shit Cx that might work :P
  • 0
    @J-2FA Are you sure?
  • 0
    @xprnio i'm in. Now we need a good name for this
  • 0
    @J-2FA yeah, it's be similar to this, but regarding ( ( ( illegal drugs ) ) )

    @YouAreAPIRate how about Uber Pushes?
  • 0
    @J-2FA that'd be a great name, if the dealers only pushed weed, which wouldn't be the case with this app :D
  • 0
    @J-2FA we'll take it!
  • 1
    Doesn't Libya still threaten to revoke domains used like this?
  • 0
    @greyfade Nothing a chunk of change won't change ;)
  • 0
    This drug dealer example is going way too far. I love it though. I mean as an example. (must be really careful what I let out of my mouth)

    Client data is the best, usually the most accurate too but looking from privacy stand point again: you must have an extreme amount of trust for the service provider. That is what many of us are trying to fight against. For many good reasons.

    Couldn't get anyone else ATM who would be happy to think about this except @linuxxx. Hope you like reading.
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