Probably not much but they do operate on seller rating system like ebay

I believe the DEA to be actively participating on both ends of the Silk Road equation. The beauty of that system is such that you buy drugs today from a DEA agent posing as a regular drug dealer on SR, then the DEA agent would know who is buying 1 gram of cocaine. I highly doubt the DEA is trying to bust every 17 year old in the nation buying 1/8th of weed discretely with bitcoins. There have been sales of drugs totaling over 5,000 EUR that have taken place, and in this situation I would wonder if either side is DEA or similar organization. The rating system can be helpful, but the DEA has a warchest of high quality drugs they could sell in very small quantities to quickly make a large positive rating.

Selling drugs on SR seems safer than buying them in small quantities. The DEA is certainly buying lots of SR drugs. They are getting the packages of drugs delivered to them. They can try and fingerprint, they can try and look for postage to see where it came from. But a very careful seller can ship from many locations in a 100 mile radius and be all over California in heavily populated areas. You could try and time-stamp a postage purchase from a camera and pull the tapes from that post office, but all the packages look the same, and standard sized priority mail boxes are always used. If you bought pre-paid priority mail stamps you could just drop the packages in one of those drive-though drop boxes all over my city and yours.

The way the USA government exerts it's control over us is via the money. No longer do they mount an army to shut down MegaUpload and Online poker - they just seized the money. When the money can no longer be seized, it seems the individual humans become empowered to do as they wish.

Did you say the DEA sells drugs through the mail? Can you trust them?

i have purchased from silk road a few times...its been a positive experience for me each time

im not a seller but would be much more comfortable doing that via the road...just cover your ends and it is def safer than doing the live hustle...

It is my belief they have tested this system from both sides. I have watched many TV cops pose as a drug dealer with evidence room cocaine in order to bust a bigger bad guy. I believe the digital equivalent is happening on SR.

I "know a guy" who "bought some THC products from SR for bitcoins" and "ingested them and got high" from SR. The service in total seems to be working smoothly at this stage.

DISCLAIMER: Past results have no bearing on future experience in the cryptocurrency illegal drug markets.

The DEA can't psychically sell you drugs, they can't even hire an informant to do that. They can only trap you if your selling yourself. How their legally allowed to buy any weight off anyone to bust you later just blows my mind. Just remember kiddos, the CIA brings the drugs into the country.

i would like to psychically buy some drugs

I think you blew your shot at that by telling everyone.

I agree, but it was only a few dollars, and sometimes you just have to get your gamble on.

i'm looking forward to infiniti poker if they ever launch... COME ON ALREADY!

haha wouldn't we all, I'm not so sure how well that would go. Physically,psychically, you know what I meant. I blame google spellcheck

Me too. Last word I got was late October.

hope you're right, it will be a huge win for Americans to be able to deposit/withdraw via bitcoins.. cutting out the processor = win!

please please please one time october!

this article about seals with clubs hit my 'bitcoin' google news alert, good read.

I support alternative currency and think this is a good idea. The only problem with this poker room in particular is that the only people who actually seem to know about it are 2p2ers. I can't imagine the games being very soft here...

Of course, what good winning player would be spending a good portion of their time there instead of clobbering multiple tables daily at a real site?

Id imagine the games there are soft as hell fwiw.

any rakeback available?

u automatically get 50% rb paid weekly in 2 and 3 handed games.. in 4player+ it depends how much krill (frequent player points basically) u have

i want to try playing here but the software is soooo bad.

If anything it's the opposite of this in my experience, it's way livelier on Seals. Keep in mind that users of SR are one click away from an account balance on SWC.

Even the fish on USD sites are usually like interested in strategy and know about 2p2 and stuff like that at this point. And the whales who just give it away at least know it's a hassle to drive to Western Union or whatever they have to do to reload.

Any suggestions for someone who is completely inexperienced with bitcoins but wants to buy some with a credit card? Should I use bitinstant to mtgox? Does Mtgox still need verification if I go this route?

I don't know for sure that you can buy on Bitinstant with credit card.. but other than that, ya, this is probably the best way to do it. I use Mtgox sometimes and have never needed verification, I think it's just if you send directly to a bank. 99% sure you wouldn't have to verify anything if you do this.

The rake is 2.5% with a ~$1.20 cap, 50% back for 2 and 3 handed play and as you play you get 'krill' which gives you a general rakeback eventually. There are also high hand prizes running now in NLHE ring games which lower the effective rake by a meaningful amount in the lowest games.

There is some risk they will, but I think it is low. But, you can bypass the exchanges now with bitinstant by choosing send coins to email.