There was some discussion today on the interweb about a website called Silk Road. The link below is to the Wired article, because the actual website is blocked here at work.

The point is that that Silk Road has created an anonymous exchange that is, essentially, untraceable. Today it is used for buying and selling drugs, but I can see how it could be used for Murder for Hire, or any number of illegal activities.

In principle, it can be hacked, and I am sure it will be before long. Part of the work that goes back to Turing is that any computer program can be totally understood by a bigger program. In most cases this means that all one needs to thwart a security scheme is a clever idea and a computer fast enough to implement the idea.

Silk Road can stay ahead of the game if they continue to evolve, but sooner or later someone will hack the site. Other sites will fill the niche and eventually a methodology will be discovered that will guarantee anonymity for a period long enough to gather trust.

I predict that a large effort will be made to develop this kind of site and maintain its integrity. The rewards are incredible. There will always be a demand for anonymous transactions. Drugs, guns, and crime are trivial uses of this kind of technology. I predict that the largest users of these systems will eventually be politicians and governments.

Underground Website Lets You Buy Any Drug Imaginable | Threat Level | Wired.com.