This book draws on research into darknet cryptomarkets to examine themes of cybercrime, cybersecurity, illicit markets and drug use. Cybersecurity is increasingly seen as essential, yet it is also a point of contention between citizens, states, non-governmental organisations and private corporations as each grapples with existing and developing technologies. The increased importance of privacy online has sparked concerns about the loss of confidentiality and autonomy in the face of state and corporate surveillance on one hand, and the creation of ungovernable spaces and the facilitation of terrorism and harassment on the other. These differences and disputes highlight the dual nature of the internet: allowing counter-publics to emerge and providing opportunities for state and corporate domination through control of the data infrastructure. This book argues that, far from being a dangerous anarchist haven, the darknet and the technologies used within it could have benefits and significance for everyone online.

Autorentext
Angus Bancroft is Lecturer in Sociology at The University of Edinburgh, UK. His current research interests are cyber-security, illicit markets and views of darknet users. He is the author of three previous books: Dead White Men and Other Important People (Palgrave, 2016); Drugs, Intoxication and Society (Cambridge Polity, 2009); and Roma and Gypsy-Travellers in Europe: Modernity, Race, Space and Exclusion (Avebury Ashgate, 2005).

Inhalt
Acknowledgements51: Overview of the book62: Crime is as smart and as dumb as the internet11Digital crime is global and local13The limits of digital crime14After Cybercrime15New configurations of digital crime17Do not fear the darknet19Myths of the internet make digital crime look strange when it is normal24Conclusion273: How cryptomarkets work27Cryptomarkets mimic the form but not the content of clearnet shopping sites27New contexts for crime and semi-crime34Technology shouldn't lead and criminals should avoid bitcoin37Cultures of digital crime40Implications of cryptomarkets42Conclusion434: Fracturing research in splintering digital environments43The internet is more mobile, more ingrained and also more fractured43Reshaping expertise in social research45Questioning scientific hierarchies47New data types and combinations49Ethics and politics in the data infrastructure51End of the online53The Network and the Limits of Metaphor54How this changes what we study56Research for this book58Conclusion585: Illicit trades are political economies59Security and insecurity are distributed by the nation state and global economy59Social trauma and harm geography60Extent and growth of the illicit economy62Legitimate illicit business66Legitimate violence71Markets regulate crime72Conclusion746: The cultural drug-crime confection74Illicit intoxication and normal addiction in the 'machine zone'75The work of culture in the context of the illicit76Symbolic order and power80Looking for culture83Looking into the surface85Drug markets in institutions86Conclusion887: Cybercrime is not always rational, but it is reasonable89Digital crime is structured more than organised89Organised crime is a useful performance for cops and criminals91Trade associations exist alongside cartels93Illegal markets come in different types94From Kingpinning to routine crime95Normal scammers and legit vendors96Business strategy and trajectory96Building a hybrid infrastructure to cope with uncertainty100Markets regulate crime work101Coordination and cooperation103Structuring Opportunity1058: Managing relationships in digital crime108Seeing like a blockchain: the problem of trust109Smart contracts, and machine laws110Trust in cryptomarkets111Coordination and cooperation113Conclusion1159: How knowledge about drugs is produced in cryptomarkets116Quality is an unstable quality118Paraphernalia and preparation119How users share knowledge and assess quality124Adulteration, contamination127Conclusion12910: Risk structuring130Cryptomarkets are one place where drug risk is dissected and reworked130Structuring of risk132Peer support135Risk signalling and responsible harm137Dosing and the user's body141Drug Altruism142Cryptomarkets are meeting points143Conclusion14611: Technology does not confer security and transparency does not confer safety147Anonymity is desired but not achieved in the cryptomarkets147Secrecy is needed150Anonymity's techno-politics150The pleasures of the hidden152Attesting persona155Multiple identities are a challenge for users and vendors:155...