Robot Buys Drugs With Bitcoins, Arrested By Cops

[Rainman]

How does a robot [or rather a bot] buy drugs online?

Well, the bot was programmed to scour the web and buy contraband items with it's allowance which was $100 worth of bitcoin. According to a news article,The idea was to display all this precious contraband at an art exhibit to reveal the seedy side of the Internet

Robot buys Ecstasy with Bitcoin, arrested by cops | BGR

Among other things, the robot purchased a Hungarian passport, a baseball hat that had a hidden camera installed, and someone’s entire Lord of the Rings eBook collection. Oh, and it also bought some ecstasy too.

Swiss police upon learning that, seized the computer and all the items the bot had bought

Apparently though upon learning about the experiment, the cops returned the computer and [but for the ecstasy], all other items that had been purchased were returned.

 

[JoanMcWench]

I've always maintained the future of drug dealing will move more & more towards online transactions. It's every street drug dealers dream to remain anonymous while raking in the dough. The Silk Road was a great example of this.

 

[Rainman]

And then there are all these sites on the dark net. And because of the anonymity, catching the criminals and drug dealers will be a lot harder.

Darknet danger: Organs, murder, credit card info all for sale on Internet's underbelly | Fox News

]Perusing the darknet offers a jarring jaunt through jaw-dropping depravity: Galleries of child pornography, videos of humans having sex with animals, offers for sale of illegal drugs, weapons, stolen credit card numbers and fake identifications for sale. Even human organs reportedly from Chinese execution victims are up for sale on the darknet.

The war on drugs is going to be a lot harder [to win] in future if those selling the drugs can't be caught. And if bitcoin is the currency they accept . . .

 

[dyanmarie25]

Well, it's really true that modern technology has its pros and cons. And this case is just one of the many cons. It's pretty alarming how easy it is to do drug dealings and horrid transactions online. I am now anxious about what will happen in the future if this thing continues.

 

[Rainman]

Well, it's really true that modern technology has its pros and cons. And this case is just one of the many cons. It's pretty alarming how easy it is to do drug dealings and horrid transactions online. I am now anxious about what will happen in the future if this thing continues.

Things will get worse. Most net users don't know of the existence of the darknet. Once many people get to know of it's existence then I'm sure there'll be a spike in crimes. Think of all the murders that will be committed when people can hire hitmen on the darknet . . .

If someone hates you, all they'll do is pay some murderer, provide your address and pic and you'll be out of their life forever.

 

[Patrick]

That's one of the shadier aspects of Bitcoin, the anonymity associated with your Bitcoin wallet makes it easy for money-laundering and less legal transactions.

 

[Whitewolf2578]

A baseball hat with a camera, sweet. I have always wanted a pair of those glasses with a camera built in them. Kind of funny that a program did all this, and I bet the Swiss police were like "Dangit Jim, we got trolled" I tried Bitcoin out a long time ago, must have taken them forever to get to 100 dollars.

 

[mrsbright]

That's pretty interesting, but what has LOTR ebooks to do with the seedy side of the internet?

 

[tanker]

Bit coin is not anoymous, the guy who ran silkroad was arrested, and all of the other sites like silkroad the owners have been arrested. In some ways it makes the police's job easier and safer, they not longer have to go out on the street to chase criminals.