Welcome
Silk Load

Sometimes when I'm watching the Internet news unfolding, I feel like I'm in one of those weird dreams where everything looks the same, but all reason is inverted in some way that only the people in the dream understand. The Internet brings down barriers, including those comforting barriers that provide a cozy space for our moral certainty to flourish. We lapse into approaching problems from the circle of our own experience, sometimes not noticing that we have traveled into very different places. And we mistake our viewpoint for our values, aligning ourselves with others who share a common attitude or rhetorical framework.
Dear Linux Pro Reader,
Sometimes when I'm watching the Internet news unfolding, I feel like I'm in one of those weird dreams where everything looks the same, but all reason is inverted in some way that only the people in the dream understand. The Internet brings down barriers, including those comforting barriers that provide a cozy space for our moral certainty to flourish. We lapse into approaching problems from the circle of our own experience, sometimes not noticing that we have traveled into very different places. And we mistake our viewpoint for our values, aligning ourselves with others who share a common attitude or rhetorical framework.
So rare it is for people in the news to take responsibility for their actions and own up to their mistakes. I was struck by the candor, humility, and accountability of a community-minded admin who recently announced to his users that the network had been hacked. When describing the scenario that led to the attack, this conscientious soul was quite concerned and self-reflective, stating, "In retrospect, this was incredibly foolish, and I take full responsibility for this decision." He even added, "I have failed you as a leader and am completely devastated by today's discoveries."
No passing the buck for this principled leader, who really seemed committed to getting it right and putting the house in order. What house did he live in? Actually, the earnest admin who unleashed this boy-scout-like apologia was none other than Defcon, administrator of the reconstituted market-for-everything Silk Road. His purpose for making this announcement was to reach out to his "community," in this case, an anonymous collection of drug dealers, drug users, pornographers, and other patrons of secret transactions. The problem he faced was that someone had cleaned the entire Silk Road escrow system out of bitcoins – a haul estimated at approximately US$ 2.8 million, depending on whatever value you assign to the highly volatile bitcoin digital currency.
In the spirit of solidarity and empathy for the commonweal, Defcon invited readers to review the attacker's "dishonest actions and use whatever means you deem necessary to bring this person to justice." In this case, since most Silk Road transactions are illegal, that justice would not be a matter of calling the local constable but would presumably include whatever means drug dealers use to settle things among themselves. If his version of justice incorporates some of the techniques allegedly attempted by his predecessor "Dread Pirate Roberts" at the Silk Road 1.0 site, it would allegedly include murder.
Call me old fashioned, but I think candor and accountability are really good things, but drug dealing, money laundering, and murder are not such good things. Defcon's community spirit and moral beacon shining across the murky ocean of the clandestine economy is an interesting metaphor for the anonymity tools that underpin the Silk Road phenomenon, Tor and Bitcoin, which were developed with all the best intentions but were unleashed into a world that is much more morally diverse than the design space for which these tools were originally intended.
Just as we are instinctively attracted to Defcon's (real or feigned?) community spirit, so we are brought along with the goals of Tor and Bitcoin, falling in line with a tendency to cheer for their users wherever they might appear. We gotta get over that. Anonymity networks are to protect free speech and freedom from surveillance – not drug deals. It might be difficult to imagine what we can do about that, but at least we need to be able to say it: Standing up for anonymity does not automatically make you into an anarchist who has no right to an opinion on what people do beneath this cloak of secrecy. Anyone who tells you differently is selling you a load of silk.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you've found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Arch Linux 2023.12.01 Released with a Much-Improved Installer
If you've ever wanted to install Arch Linux, now is your time. With the latest release, the archinstall script vastly simplifies the process.
-
Zorin OS 17 Beta Available for Testing
The upcoming version of Zorin OS includes plenty of improvements to take your PC to a whole new level of user-friendliness.
-
Red Hat Migrates RHEL from Xorg to Wayland
If you've been wondering when Xorg will finally be a thing of the past, wonder no more, as Red Hat has made it clear.
-
PipeWire 1.0 Officially Released
PipeWire was created to take the place of the oft-troubled PulseAudio and has finally reached the 1.0 status as a major update with plenty of improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Rocky Linux 9.3 Available for Download
The latest version of the RHEL alternative is now available and brings back cloud and container images for ppc64le along with plenty of new features and fixes.
-
Ubuntu Budgie Shifts How to Tackle Wayland
Ubuntu Budgie has yet to make the switch to Wayland but with a change in approaches, they're finally on track to making it happen.
-
TUXEDO's New Ultraportable Linux Workstation Released
The TUXEDO Pulse 14 blends portability with power, thanks to the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU.
-
AlmaLinux Will No Longer Be "Just Another RHEL Clone"
With the release of AlmaLinux 9.3, the distribution will be built entirely from upstream sources.
-
elementary OS 8 Has a Big Surprise in Store
When elementary OS 8 finally arrives, it will not only be based on Ubuntu 24.04 but it will also default to Wayland for better performance and security.
-
OpenELA Releases Enterprise Linux Source Code
With Red Hat restricting the source for RHEL, it was only a matter of time before those who depended on that source struck out on their own.